The Broken Bond
by TheOneAndOnly1993
Summary: In a desperate bid to save Twilight's life, Starlight thoughtlessly sacrifices something very important to her. Both ponies shoulder a sense of responsibility for what happened, while Starlight deteriorates from conflicting feelings.
1. The Broken Student

The world was ending, but all one pony could see was red.

Metaphorically, that is, though not unlike the miasma spewing forth relentlessly from her very own horn, crimson deep as her rage.

She only saw red, and the balloon up ahead. She galloped alone down the streets of Ponyville, its population having convened at the castle and outside of her ability to care.

"S-rli-t!"

She only saw red.

"STA-IGHT -LIMM-R!"

 _She only felt red._

"STAR- _LIGH-HIGH-HIGHT!_ " echoed haggardly behind her. She whirled around before fully realizing who it belonged to.

"Spike..." the pony moaned. It wasn't in displeasure of seeing him.

He sprinted across Ponyville's vacant market square upon stumpy legs. The sight of him, his evident anger, invoked Starlight Glimmer's ire like a burning whip:

" _I am NOT going back there_!" she roared, hoof pointed to the distant silhouette of the Friendship Castle. From afar, lavender and magenta ribbons draped it like a glorified Hearth's Warming tree. Ponyville and anypony even remotely important to the princess who owned it - which was about half of Equestria, it seemed - were crammed inside under a veil of merriment. "You're free to not have any faith in me, Spike. But our 'friends' have given up on her! Not me though - I won't!" Her hoof stamped down, punctuating her horn as it belched more crimson.

Starlight Glimmer returned to the anchored basket before her. Deep down she was ashamed. _Sweet Celestia, I haven't sounded this deranged since..._

A potent pang in her chest flared, harsher than before.

She placed one hoof upon the basket as Spike skidded to a stop behind her. He gasped for breath between every word. "How, could you, saythat?!" he cried, rage pushing past his exhaustion. "You saw them, Starlight, you were right there! They're taking this harder than anypony, almost as much as me! And you-!"

"And I'm not giving up on Twilight just yet!"

Spike's brows furrowed, his green eyes glaring. "Do you even know how you sound right now!? You're acting as if our friends are throwing in the towel and just forgetting about Twilight. But they're not! There's just... _n-nothing left_ ," Spike gasped upon a sob. "Y-You were there yesterday, Starlight! You heard Princess Celestia, you heard what she said! You saw her _cry_ -!"

"No," Starlight snapped, "I saw her calling quits!" She wouldn't let herself give in to despair again, not while on the cusp of seeing her plan through.

Spike's mouth dropped open, his face twisted and ready to object. Starlight's red cloud dispelled the moment her magic ripped a bulky tome from her saddlebag. It's cover was a swirl of pink and purple,, and a red ribbon lie snug in the middle. "There's _always_ another way, Spike - _always_! And the fact that the princesses hadn't exhausted them all is _proof_ that there's still a chance at saving Twilight!"

"Starlight-"

The book shifted in front of her, flipping to the bookmarked page. Her eyes scanned between lines of text. "I just need to get there-"

"Starlight!"

"-meet the Witches of Flutter Valley-"

" _Starlight_!"

"-And strike a deal that'll stop Twilight from dying!"

" _STAR-LIGHT!_ "

Her name rolled briefly across the darkened homes of Ponyville.

Spike sighed, sagging with what she secretly hoped was defeat. "This is crazy, Starlight… Just come back home, please." He gestured toward it. "Celebrate with our friends, spend the weekend reading with Twilight. Just… be there, with us." His voice was quieter than a whisper, but twice as pitiful. "Your friends. F-For however long, she has l-left. 'nd just... just _accept_ the fact that Princess Celestia has tried everything!" he finished with a sob that tore her heart asunder.

Starlight wrenched away from him, eyes clenched shut, yet allowing a few tears to squeeze out unbidden.

 _'Accept the reality,' he says. 'Accept defeat. Let Twilight die.'_

Grief tore her apart inside, as everything she just said came rushing back. Starlight flinched feeling a claw touch her chest, then eased into its compassionate grip. "I'm sorry," she gasped, touching her snout to his frontmost spine. "I understand that what I'm doing is hurting you. And I didn't really mean what I'd said, about Celestia, our friends, but, but this is all just so… s-so..."

Finishing was a struggle. Whatever energy filled her before was whisked away by Spike's truths. She couldn't deny that her idea was folly.

"I meant what I'd said before." Strength returned. "I'm not giving up on Twilight. Even if there's just a _chance,_ I'd take it. And there's nothing you, or any of our friends, can do to stop me."

Unfortunately for her, Spike was a fantastic friend who knew just how badly she was hurting. He had been watching her like a dragon monitors their horde ever since Celestia broke the news.

Previously upset, his face adopted a snarl hearing the challenge in her statement. "And you're just gonna steal Cherry Berry's balloon!? You're gonna save her by chasing that _stupid foal's story_!?" With that, as far as Starlight was concerned, this conversation was over. She belted out a groan before turning back toward the balloon basket.

"Starlight Glimmer!"

She did her best to ignore him - "Starlight, come on!" - it was easy until he yanked her tail. "Please don't..." She heard the tears in his tone just prior to beholding them herself, looking over to her hindquarters to find a dragon embracing her curled tail like a life-preserve. "Please, don't," he croaked, eyes clenched shut, "I dunno what you're thinking, r'where you're goin', but..."

"Shh..." she cooed, turning to embrace her dear friend fiercely just as he started to wail. Starlight didn't know the cause or its target, nor the goal of pathetically wailing his fists against her. In her heart she could not empathize, feel his pain.

Starlight didn't loosen her embrace until Spike's sobs receded in intensity, and his fists ceased ineffectively pummeling her coat. He was still snuffling, rubbing his puffy eyes as Starlight pulled away. She lacked the energy to grimace at her snot-caked chest. A simple, soapy flash cleansed her entirely.

Spike's last words, a desperate bid to get his friend to stay here with the herd, encircled her thoughts. "You know exactly where I'm going, Spike, and why," she told him sincerely. He had been the only one Starlight trusted to support her in this endeavor, yet even he was devoid of any hope to save his best friend - his quintessential mother for pony's sake! "Aren't you willing to try _anything_ to save her?"

"Of course I am! But..." Spike turned crestfallen before echoing the night prior, "...your idea is just so... so...!"

"Crazy?" she offered.

"Silly! I mean, this is a book for foals you've taken notes on, Starlight. It isn't real, and why does it matter if the original author was inspired by something to write it!? That doesn't mean there's a group of Witches in the swamp who grant wishes, and even if there _was_ , even if by some miracle you're actually right-!" Spike stammered, unable to comprehend it. "Then this is not only dangerous, it's stupid! You could be turned into a skateboard, or something crazy like that!" His arms waved frantically, culminating into the fact that he was just trying to instill a fear of the boogeypony within her.

Spike hadn't said anything new, having already known of every risk before even conversing with him the previous night. "Maybe," she sighed, "but I have to try."

They went at it for an hour then. Now, Spike at least knew better than to argue further, as he dropped his face with a shallow sob.

Starlight pitied him. It panged her deep in the heart.

Once upon a time, if he failed to convince her otherwise, Spike wouldn't hesitate to join in on this quest - for her safety, he'd assure Starlight. But Twilight's condition defeated him as it had everypony else. Even Somnambula's abundant hope was drained, as Starlight saw dried mascara on her cheeks as she casually exited the castle.

But she was not mad at him, or anypony. Not even a little. Starlight empathized, understanding their position entirely: their hopes have been shattered as soon as Celestia waved the white flag.

"Listen," she lifted his face, and he did his gaze, as she pressed a hoof to his trembling chin, "I get that you don't believe me... and to be honest, I don't blame you for a second. But you just gotta have faith in me, Spike! I know, I know -it sounds totally and utterly crazy. I know I sound ridiculous, and I know you're just saying all of this because you don't want to see me hurt myself." Spike's face tried turning away in shame, but Starlight sat to hold it in both hooves." _Trust_ , Spike. That's all I ask. Trust in me, trust that everything that's happened to us since moving to Ponyville has been for a reason. This is all you need to do. Everything'll be okay, I promise. I, I Pinkie Promise, even!"

Spike pressed his lips together. His crushed gaze told enough.

Starlight took a step back. She stole a second and third after Spike remained in place. "If anypony asks," she said while doing so, "please, just don't tell them where I am. I know they won't understand, and I don't want them worrying about me... If they do ask, say… Well, just say I'm going to my old friends."

 _Like that'll help._ She wondered how long it would take for Rainbow Dash to suddenly appear in her balloon's path, screaming and spitting for trying to send them the complete opposite way.

"But-! But-!" Spike argued.

"Nopony's gonna change my mind." Her tone booked no argument, and it seemed to have achieved such as she levitated herself into the basket to the sound of silence.

He appeared at the basket's edge, atop his tiptoes. "It's just that-!"

"Spike."

He stepped back, mouth clamped shut, with fresh tears running down his cheeks - he may run grooves into them at this rate. _It's Twilight's only hope left,_ Starlight wanted to say, but she knew better than to drive the spear further into the poor dragon's heart.

Starlight breathed in deep. "Everyone knows that the old pony's tales originate from some form of the truth. Twilight was right about Nightmare Moon, for one. And until I met her, I thought Harmony was just a myth, a story like all the others."

"But this is different, Starlight. It's not even an old pony's tale - it's a folk story! Like how Rockhoof used a shovel to-!" Spike's memory caught up to him, and he moaned in dismay while Starlight mustered a smug grin.

"That's not a story anymore, remember?" Starlight's magic released the balloon's sandbags, no longer anchoring it to Ponyville's marketplace. "But they all start like that, don't they Spike?"

As the balloon rose, she went over to the edge and perched upon it. "But I _have_ to believe in them, Spike - not just for her sake, _but my own_!" she shouted, her voice having risen steadily as the dragon grew incrementally smaller. "Don't you _get it_?! _This is a risk I'm wiling to take_!" She would have said more, had the words not been too big to be summoned forth.

But Spike never answered - and it wasn't that he was too far to hear, he just didn't.

 _Faith,_ she answered, reaffirming it for herself. _I need to have faith - the same faith Twilight had in me when she offered her hoof._

Starlight Glimmer watched Spike grow smaller and smaller. She rose high into the deep purple of dusk, ashamed for her lack of courage: _This is a sacrifice I'm willing to make,_ she wished to say, but the words just wouldn't come forth.

They were true, but Starlight failed to ascertain why they failed her.

She didn't think about it for long.

* * *

The Broken Bond

By TheOneAndOnly1993

* * *

Shafts of sunlight pierced the foggy gloom above Starlight Glimmer, pale daggers through a milky film enshrouding her world. She panted, keeping in pace with her racing heart, as she glanced behind her.

Starlight made out the balloon as a purple globe through the gloom.

And that was it.

She felt no breeze stir her mane. Nor did the warble of birds flutter in the air, or the buzz of swamp bugs stir lazily in the gloom.

Starlight's eardrums boomed softly with the sound of quiet.

She saw nothing but what lied ahead: a wall of black claws reaching toward her. Once trees, she assumed, but whatever lurked within gnarled them into a defense designed to scare anypony away. Their trunks grew, curving sporadically into whatever shape ensured only one way to enter.

Almost mockingly, a black-mud path before her beckoned visitors inside. The woodland's maw opened wide, the trees themselves curved and their brambles ensnared to form a tunnel. Starlight wore a critical eye as she examined its utterly perfect architecture.

She hoped nopony was watching. It there was, she prayed even harder for them to have been fooled by her mask.

 _And ponies call the Everfree unnatural?_ At least there, the trees grew in their own shape, their own freedom. Whatever force ruled here, it preferred absolute control. It did so with cruelty, and a magic far beyond that of anypony who ever lived.

 _Except for the princesses._ Starlight felt no lighter after her assurance than she did before.

She swallowed hard. Her eyes couldn't break away from the mud-caked path before her. The longer she stared, the more it played tricks with her eyes. If she were not a skeptical pony, Starlight might have believed them when she saw the stuff writhe, ever so slightly.

 _That's no mud._ She had zero intentions of finding out what it was. Starlight gazed deep into the abyss before her, wondering just how long it was, and how long she could maintain a levitation field upon herself.

 _I held it just fine before, and during a fight with Twilight, no less. This is foal's play._

Common unicorns required a certain amount of attention toward activating their magic, though for some, a mere thought willed it into existence.

A mental glance as thoughtless as breathing snapped Starlight's horn to life, and the whole world thrummed to the beat of one heart. The magic wreathing her horn swallowed her entire body, and it carried her into the darkness ahead. She was engulfed completely, save for the field illuminating her surroundings in a dim, teal-tinted flush.

Not that Starlight Glimmer was actually sparing her attention. By the light of her horn, a book floated from her saddlebag and opened to a page marked with a red ribbon.

She read aloud in her head, trying to spite the deafening silence embracing her:

 _"Where's th' pay-ath?" asked Hazel. The colt and his twin sister, Griddle, looked upon Father with huge, innocent eyes._

 _Father's wheat stalk shifted to the opposite corner of his mouth as he pointed into the swamp ahead. "Jus' walk straight on through, young'ins. That thar goop is yucky, to be shoore, but it won't hurt'cha none. You'll eventch'lly come to a big ol' clearin' - can't miss it, shorely can't. N' then? ...Then they'll come to you, if it pleases 'em. They may even take care o' ya, give ya a place that c'n actually feed ya..."_

 _Griddle smiled happily, her cheekbones pronounced. "Don't be sad, Daddy! We know you do your best, and that's all that matters!"_

 _Hazel was still the worrywart, his eyes flitting from the darkness ahead, to the warm presence of Father. "But... w-what if th' Witches, err, the Ladies, don't appear? Ho-How'll we know they're coming!?"_

 _"Oh, ya won't," Father winked. "But bless yer souls if they do! They come? An' you see 'em? Why, must mean you're might' special! Meetin' was destined t' happen, jus' like that mark on yer flank! Y'know what Ah mean?"_

 _Griddle trotted forward, nuzzling Father's leg affectionately. "And then, if they meet us, the Ladies of Flutter Valley'll feed us, an' give Hazel n' Ah treats to bring home!" Father simply bent down, kissed his daughter's head, then pulled his son in to do the same, forcing back tears all the while._

 _God knows it'll be the last time he will._

Starlight Glimmer shuddered. "Hope this is the 'old pony's tale' part of the story," she remarked.

 _Though it probably isn't,_ she dreaded. _Celestia knows they'll be just as horrible as I imagine: cauldron full of fillies, huge warts, broomsticks..._

Starlight grimaced as pain burned a hole in her stomach, twisting with the mental image she conjured up and the preexisting emptiness of her belly. _Now I REALLY wish I wasn't so unreasonably_ angry _back home. Maybe then I would have actually EATEN something..._

She envisioned a squeezing gesture, and the teal magic ensnaring _Tall Tales and Unexplained Phenomena_ closed it shut with a solid _THWUMP._ Although she read it cover-to-cover on the balloon ride here, she just had to double-check the illustration and directions given on the fourth section of its thirteenth chapter:

'The Witches of Flutter Valley.'

Flying in, the brittle, clawed fingers of bared birches had eached up at her from the fog enshrouding it. It was impossible for Starlight to know these were different from the last three: all shriveled, dead woodlands. But after triple checking the gnarled, naked branches twisted round each other in the picture, to those which leered before her and above, Starlight knew.

She was not only in Flutter Valley, but at the actual doorstep of the "Ladies" who called it home.

Her blood chilled, and lightheadedness had almost forced Starlight to the soggy soil below her. _They're real... It's all real. Sweet Celestia, they're real!_

Although a veil of fog concealed it, Starlight could ascertain its size created a barrier between southern Equestria, and whatever lay beyond.

As she soared deeper into the bog, Starlight saw precious little beyond the suffocating darkness between every trunk, let alone trace of an uncharted continent. They were snowflakes, where every one was different: thick, thin, bent like an "L" or twisting upwards in a warped, wooden corkscrew; their sizes ranged from thin as a foreleg, to massive mounds of black willow-bark.

"Who decided to name this place 'Flutter Valley?'" Starlight muttered. Her ears twitched at the sound of sudden noise, beyond the monotonous hum of her levitation-field.

It was just a macabre name with no definitive origin. Centuries ago, ponies apparently went missing here every so often. Starlight assumed this it's what led to the region's abandonment, and eventually, its place in reality. Flutter Valley was but an anomaly, a ghost story for foals that none were brave enough to seek the truth.

 _But perhaps, maybe, that's for the best..._

Whether or not the Witches themselves were real, a dark, primal sort of force soaked the very air Starlight breathed. Perhaps the goop passing beneath her was toxic to ponies. She did not stare into it for long, the sheer blackness of it felt like gazing into a bottomless pit, save for a wavy, teal light acting as her shadow.

 _Maybe Flutter Valley wasn't always like this._

Starlight couldn't help but think of her dear friend, Fluttershy. Although, any resemblance to her gentle, softspoken friend began and ended at the name.

For a moment, Starlight reflected upon the irony of it all. She entered this bog with substantially less trepidation than a conversation with the pony she'd since spent numerous animal tea parties getting to know.

Finally arriving at the fabled bog, Starlight realized she was so close to preserving the happiness of that distant past - to saving Twilight Sparkle. She had almost lost the ability to breathe. Starlight wanted nothing more than to fall upon the damp, curled grass that kissed her knees, and lose herself to the same sickness which had ensnared her friends:

Emotion. Senseless, raw, uncontrollable, and from the soul.

But she hadn't yet.

She never did; she wept and cried alongside them to be sure, but Starlight Glimmer was never defeated by it. She never was one to simply give up and accept reality.

 _Whatever it takes, I will save her..._

Because if she succumbed to this sickness? If she just gave upand accepted her teacher's fate like Spike and Applejack and even Princess Celestia-!?

A gasp tore from her throat.

Her anger and magic had surged forth as one; teal sparks spat forth from her horn, and her entire body dropped.

Starlight's heart threatened to lurch out of her throat, but was swallowed in a gasp for breath. She peeked one eye open, observing her back-left an inch from dipping into the purple-black sludge of Flutter Valley. Blinking, Starlight held her entire being for a full second before thrashing her head to and fro. She steeled her gaze ahead, piercing the dense gloom of Flutter Valley's encroaching, wooden skeletons.

She pressed on with a roll of the eyes. "Keep your cool, Starlight," she muttered. "There's no need to let your emotions get the best of you now, eh-heh!" An uneasy titter marked the start of an elongated silence.

It wasn't long before the initial purpose behind thinking so much made itself eerily known.

She struggled not to feel disturbed at the sincere lack of life in this bog. No cries of a beast hunting, or being hunted. No occasional gargle of a gas pocket, erupting with its atrocious fumes which characterized a normal bog, nor did she hear the slurp of trees seeping deeper into the purple-black glue. The black glue, which devoured the swamp even beyond the path, if her reflected teal glow was anything to go by. It comprised its entire floor, beginning abruptly, unnaturally, at the ancient bramble-gate inviting Starlight inside.

She didn't know what the ponies back home were complaining about. Over there, at least, the Everfree Forest was actually _alive_ ; untamed and unsettling, to be sure, but fascinating in how self-sufficient and rich it was. Here, though, the lack of anything living tightened her tummy into a knot.

Instead of the slurp of rotting vegetation, there was only a silence where Starlight Glimmer breathed to the beat of her own pulse. Instead of scummy, brown water, there was stillness. It was stagnant, a sheet of iron stretching out forever. It would never break or churn or burp up atrocious gas pockets.

The memory of such things tickled her insides. What she wouldn't give to have one burst in her face again, its tang so acrid it beckoned the casting of an air-freshener charm and a soft giggle from Fluttershy. But there wasn't even any air - not hot, nor moist - to dampen Starlight's coat, to settle discomfort on her own skin.

Here she was dry as a bone, and she just felt uncomfortable altogether. Starlight ignored the itch creeping down her spine, zeroing in on the light at the end of the tunnel:

White, churning, tricking her for but a moment that it was alive.

Perhaps, in a spell of thought, the soul of this accursed place, where all the life that was missing had convened? Starlight accelerated through the last stretch of the tunnel, a burning desperation ablaze deep in her core that had shattered into pieces upon breaking through.

White roiled all around her, nothing more than a screen of fog. But it _thrummed_ with magic, and a haggard cry tore from Starlight's throat as she crashed and carved a trail of mud into the earth.

Similar to when a Pegasus is in flight, or an Earth Pony in contact with the elements, Unicorns are able to with Equestria's higher plane through the use of their horn. When partaking with this special bond, they open themselves to a connection with its very soul. Starlight Glimmer felt especially in-tune with the land's inherent soul, but ever since moving to Ponyville, and inside Twilight's castle especially, this connection transmuted into a blossoming warmth that she still hadn't fully understood, but treasured greatly all the same.

This place was another matter entirely.

It was like seven hammers striking the inside of her brain at once, and that time itself paused upon the moment of impact. It was too much, too saturated with magic that was so unfamiliar and ancient and dense that Starlight could not sustain her spell for a second before pain speared her cranium, and she lost control altogether.

A slick sensation clung to her undercarriage. Starlight groaned as she stood, and not solely from the sensation down there. She gave her entire being, mind and soul, several beats of utter silence to recover and relish in the calm enshrouding her before recollecting.

She wasted no time absorbing her surroundings: a veritable wall of trees, as dense and before, encircled this grassy enclosure. Mist swallowed the opposite end of the clearing in a murky embrace, though her imagination surmised the obvious.

But what allured Starlight Glimmer's attention - a veritable moth towards light within utter darkness - sat directly behind her.

Starlight leaped back and stared for a beat before she soundlessly cooed. _Where's Maud when you need her?_

Several feet away, upon a flat-topped rock like a pedestal, was a rock she would doubtlessly find interesting.

It was the huge - the size of her head, really - whose edges were cut so fine it'd make Rarity squeal in delight. That is if she wasn't already enamored by the warm glow it exuded, orange at its center, and self-contained. It dimmed, then brightened, then faded once more - a cycle it repeated endlessly. This light did not shine, even against the surface it sat upon. Magic thrummed within Starlight's horn as she neared, as if the gemstone's pulse comprised her own.

"What _are_ you?" Starlight wondered. She felt compelled to raise a hoof, to touch it, investigate it. But something inside, nestled deep within, kept it rooted to the moistened soil.

This feeling enwreathed her heart, familiar and new at the same time. One part of Starlight's brain wondered, frightened, at the power this gem had upon her will. Just merely looking at it had this effect on her.

It was this same feeling which stilled Starlight's tremulous form. It gave her the strength to look away from the sunshine stone, and voice a commanding, "Hello?" into the emptiness around her.

It was like shouting into a pillow, the fog's density smothered her voice.

Starlight breathed some of it in to speak in a stronger, fearless tone. "I know that you dwell here, and I demand that you show yourself!"

She might have cast an uncloaking charm upon the surrounding area, had the preceding pain not been just seconds old. _Just what was that, anyway?_ Starlight wondered, breathing through her mouth as her gaze bounced to every corner of this clearing. _There was pain while I was casting a spell, and it didn't go away until after I deactivated my magic,_ she rationalized, turning, _which means that it couldn't possibly have been an anti-magic fie-_

"WHA- _H'AIE_!" Starlight's heart slammed into her throat, and dropped right down: something giggled, _directly in her ear_.

In its direction, she found only fog.

She stared, unblinkingly, unmovingly, as it curled toward her, rolling upon an invisible barrier covering the tunnel she emerged from. At her left flank, it had thinned enough to see nothing past the enclosing treeline, black and lifeless.

Starlight's previous rationalization resurfaced. It filled her head with thoughts, distracting her from the silence which prickled her skin. _So if this isn't anti-magic..._

Prepared for what's to come, Starlight manifested her connection to magic - a powerful teal glow represented this, and lasted all of half a second before blinking out of existence with a sharp gasp.

"T'hen this play-hace...!" Starlight panted, "...Is'sa a whole, oth'r _magic_... entirely!" It was so different from any time Starlight had engaged with her magic elsewhere. The magic of this place, these Witches, it felt primordial: ancient, and powerful, too. Whatever they were, whoever this was, wielded a power leagues beyond that of herself.

Fog infiltrated Starlight's lungs as she stood there, buckled. Her eyes whizzed about, absorbing the silence enclosing her. She scanned for any sign of movement, a disturbance in the fog. But it churned and rolled and did little but prickle her skin and stand her hairs on ends.

A stone fell into her stomach.

Starlight scanned the perimeter again with parted lips. A full rotation nearly ended in further dread until the feeling shot through her bosom like a lance.

Her breath halted as it caught her eye: an image that hung there within the tree-wall for a beat before melting into the darkness.

It was a fragment of... something...

A face, un-ponylike, with eyes glowing like lights but black as the shadow it dwelt within.

A face looking upon her with perverse interest.

 _We see you we hear you we're coming for you Starlight..._

The whispers of the fog dissipated with a shake of the head. "Just tricks of the fog!" she told herself. "Just some silly spatial d-distortion, brought about by th-the... thee, the... thoo..." Starlight's voice had diminished from a whisper, to a squeak, before then achieving silence. Her eyes roved endlessly, as if the Witches would just appear if she looked hard enough.

She was afraid, and she hated it, but with every second passed the feeling intensified until it hurt to breathe. What if they truly did show because of Destiny, like in the story? And that Starlight's did not entwine with theirs? What if... What if Spike was right? What if this was all just folly, a heartbreak waiting to happen? What if...?

 _What if Twilight Sparkle truly IS destined to...?_

Starlight gulped, sounding a whimper. She whipped back around, flinging her gaze from branch to branch. "No," she whispered, spinning once more. "No! No..." trailed into a pitiful sob, "this can't be it! I came all this way! There, There _has_ to be a way to save Twilight, there _has_ to!"

"dRy YoUr TeArS, mY lItTlE pOnY," a voice spoke, directly in her ear.

Cold spasms drove down Starlight's back; she gulped a yelp, her head whipping around and -

She let out a bloodcurdling scream.

But it did little to justify the terror which speared through her very soul. Starlight had turned anticipating further disappointment, and instead was met with the Witches of Flutter Valley emerging from the fog on creeping, deliberate footsteps. Grass and soft soil squashed audibly from across the clearing.

Her forelegs trembled. Starlight's chest cavity swelled with fog, expelling it, before gasping for more once again. Everything she was going to say to them fled from her thoughts. She forgot how to even speak, or what words even were. She just stood there, gaping, sweating as she felt the air shift upon their approach, heated, like plastic bent and folded in an instant.

"dIsPeL aNy NoTiOnS oF uSiNg YoUr MaGiC, pReTtY oNe!" two voices snarled as one - from which ones, Starlight was too busy reeling from disgusted shock.

As they approached her with lethargic movements, those same voices took evident glee in beholding their newest victim. "yOuUu HoLd No PoWeR oVeR tHiS pLaNe…" The female-sounding voice was different, adopting a bit of a twang akin to Applejack's

Her words were a buzz in Starlight's ears, their demonic undertones raking chills across her back. She couldn't stop herself from gawking; they resembled nothing Starlight had ever encountered, nor dreamed of hearing. The Witches bore a loose similarity to the Humans Sunset Shimmer lived among, except the comparison began and ended with their figures.

Their composition was a sickly-grey composition, unlike the pastel Humans she was familiar with. They looked diseased: veined and spotted with scabs, rashes, and several various blemishes, scars and growths her stomach clenched as more were revealed the longer she stared. They weren't slim and kind-looking, either; they were big, their heads actually smaller than their torsos, with faces obscured or deformed to the point of being indecipherable.

The center Witch was the shortest (although definitely a head taller than most ponies), and grotesquely fat. The sagging, pale flesh of her stomach concealed whatever she had for feet, featuring instead black roots which crawled up and underneath a stained, royal-blue dress. She was dressed like a mage: shawl, amulet pulsing between her enormous, sagging breasts.

A set of horns burst from the sides of her noggin, bald, but for strands of orange hair that Spike could tally with both claws. They grew at absurd, crooked angles, unnatural and painful-looking. They irritated the OCD pony within Starlight, as the more elevated curved up toward the heavens, much longer than its siblings, and perhaps longer than the horn of Princess Celestia. With a violet scrap of fabric cinched about her face, tattered and clearly torn from her stained cloak, it was hard to get a read on this thing with only two rotting, black pits for eyes.

She may as well have been wearing a mask.

Not unlike the girl at her left, who stood mere inches taller than the ringleader, though still shorter because of the horn. Beholding her for the first time, she was a living horror story: in gold and red saturated enough to render Rarity a heaving mess, crimson so dark it was nigh ink-colored mottled the witch's burlap dress. A severe case of what looked like gout, with enraged boils and pustules, coated her cankles.

What sort of accident had befallen this creature? Starlight gawked and gaped, staring at her the longest as they emerged from the fog, three seconds to be precise, for she had never seen so much blood at once; nothing greater than a gushy nose of course. The gloves she wore just so happened to be the same rust color; crusty, flaking, where the latex of one appeared to have been eaten away, revealing on her hand's back a set of thin, white...

Starlight dry-heaved - a fist that'd forced its way up her gullet was swallowed down just as it reached its apex.

She was already reeling from their appearances. Starlight could not even begin to comprehend the crimes this monster had committed, how many have crossed her spoon. How many had she eaten out of that dented, stained pot on her head? It looked to have been slammed upon her by Tirek, packing in as much of her raven-haired head as possible. The rest of her face was just a maw - lipless and toothless; a grey ruin of gums save for her big snaggletooth lancing the jaw, its tail poking out her chin, corrupting the flesh around it like a diseased soul patch.

It would seem that pain did not exist for her, or her associates, for she was beaming - the sort of vacant, gaping-black-pit smile that would swallow up all the joy in a Pinkie Pie-party. Starlight Glimmer blanched, trying to turn her head away if not for her eyes, burrowed deep within her mouth's void already. A brief tug-of-war ensued in which she tried to look away, until suddenly her gaze snapped free toward the last witch.

Or rather, her stilts, err... her knees: bent inwards, giving her a pigeon-toed appearance with big, hulking hands suspended limply above the ground. Starlight's head craned, taking in the Witch's patchwork-preserved overalls, for that was all she wore, until her horn pointed toward the fog-laden heavens.

The background's purity clasped the third Witch in an angelic glow, enshrouding the details of her face. This would have perturbed Starlight had the previous one not been burned into her memory. But this one's stiff, orange hair concealed the majority of her face anyway, defined enough to make out one that is long and gaunt. Perhaps if she used that ratty bow hanging loosely around her neck, she could do something about her hair - at least then, Starlight wouldn't have to endure the unflinching stare of those familiar, shadow-black lights peering at her from within that hay-pile of a mane.

She was huge - taller than Discord, easily, but even thinner than him. She was only bones with a layer of skin stretched over it. With what little of her rashy skin was left bare by her overalls, Starlight saw racks of shadows, her ribs, barely concealed by those ludicrous arms that were twice as long as her own torso; and her sternum, peeking out from beneath her denim, was but a jagged dagger pointed toward a pencil-thin neck.

With a chill clawing through her, Starlight's gaze wavered to the middle Witch. By pure rationalization, she must have been the leader.

"wHy'D yA dIsTuRb OuR rEsT, pOnY?!" The tall witch on the left had lurched forward a step, although Starlight's gaze only found her upended, scabby hands before the rightmost added, "wHaT gIvEs YoU tHe RiGhT, _tHe ShEeR aUdAcItY_ , tO cOmE iNtO oUr HoMe!?"

Starlight blanched, her eyes frozen on her bobbing, grey uvula. The Witch's lips never moved, not even a little, as if all their voices were a force of magic altogether. They rang with a demonic resonance, burrowing deep into Starlight's brain, and gnawing chunks from her insides with every word.

"nOw, NoW, gIrLs - SeTtLe DoWn..."

The middle one approached, somehow with no eyes. Her voice was like a kindly mother's underneath the evil seeped within. It somehow frosting the air before her without disturbing the cloth bound around her bloated face.

"wHy, iT's NoT bEeN tOo LoNg SiNcE oUr LaSt OnE. dOn'T yOu _DaRe_ ShAmE mE iN fRoNt Of OuR nEw FrIeNd, YoU iNgRaTeS! NoT wHeN i'Ve TaUgHt YoU bOtH oN hOw We TrEaT gUeStS…" Her body turned slightly towards the fat, rightmost Witch. " _yOu_ HaVeN't FoRgOtTeN, hAvE yOu ReEkA?"

"oHhHh-H'oH-h'Oh! cErTaInLy NoT! _hMm_... I cAn TaStE hEr AlL- _rEaDy_!" Defying all logic and reason, "Reeka" slurped her lips without doing so as she rubbed her bloodied hands together. "cAn I eAt HeR lIvEr, mOmMa? ThAt WaS aLwAyS mY fAvOrItE." Clasped hands rubbed against her cheek; coupled with her inflated foot twisting into the muck, Reeka resembled a macabre parody of how a Human teenager would probably act.

"nO! wE cAn'T eAt HeR!" The lofty Witch rolled a hand up in confusion. "BuT mOmMa! i ThOuGhT tHe OmEnS sAiD tHaT tHiS oNe WoUlD sAvE- _OW-H'OW_!" Despite her cry, the crackle of a wood echoed clearly in Starlight's ears.

She had buckled suddenly to one knee, caressing her shin where it was now gifted with a new joint.

"Momma" must have lashed out her spotted in an unbelievable burst of speed. It was the only explanation Starlight could accept.

"i ThInK yOu BrOkE iT!" Her otherworldly blubbers garnered not a scrap of pity from Starlight.

The desire to scream, 'NO KIDDING!' was fierce, but the chill in Starlight's gut crawled up and tightened around her throat.

"fIrStLy, tHaT's 'HyDiA' To YoU, yOu _DeGeNeRaTeS_!" Momma's statuesque posture did not express her rage, or any movement whatsoever apart from a finger pointed at the air.

She continued at her downed daughter, _"_ AnD dArE nOt SpOiL oUr FuN eVeR AgAiN, dRaGgLe, LeSt YoU wAnT mE tO eAt YoUr LiPs LiKe I dId ReEkA."

"Holy Celestia..."

It was like firing off an air horn in a quiet room - three faced slid towards Starlight and made her flinch.

But her blood ran cold hearing the words, "SoMeThInG tHe MaTtEr, StArLiGhT?" from Draggle. Smoothly, she ascended out of her peripherals, returning to her prior knuckle-dragging posture.

Whatever slur of words Starlight's brain had prepared before meeting the Witches was long gone.

"Do We _HoRrIfY_ yOu?" Reeka stepped forth, hands splayed out, as if presenting their home and all the milky smoke enshrouding it.

Hydia laughed sharply, once, adding with amusement, "wE'rE aLl DrEsSeD uP, jUsT fOr YoU! oH, iF oNlY yOu KnEw JuSt HoW mUcH tImE wE sPeNt In FrOnT oF tHe GlAsS iN aNtIcIpAtIoN oF fInAlLy MeEtInG yOu!"

The pony lifted a hoof off the ground - only to pull it closer to herself. "You guys saw that I was coming? Or..." Her brain wracked, her brows furrowed, and Starlight Glimmer finished with mustered courage, "Or did you somehow _know_ already? How?"

Reeka clapped her hands together. "oOh-H'oH- _h'Oh_! ShE's QuIcK aS a WhIp, ThIs HeRe PoNy!"

Draggle did not move. _"_ SeE? sEe? SeE hOw ShE wOnDeRs AbOuT dEsTiNy? I ToLd YoU sHe WoUlD bE mY fAvOrITe."

Spiders skittered down her back.

Hydia concluded in her demonic, solemn intonations: _"_ YeS, bUt NoT aS mUcH aS sHe ShOuLd! AnD tHaT mEaNs, NoT eNoUgH tO rUiN oUr FuN…"

Starlight's breath caught in her throat, and not just because of those implications.

No one's spoken of Destiny so casually before, as if the concept were as simple as cutie marks; ponies just didn't think much of the supposed superstition. Even without being explicit, the witches' knowledge of such things was unparalleled by probably any pony alive, save for Celestia.

 _They clearly know me... which means, they know why I'm here, right? And... And their magic, whatever it is... it's gotta be powerful enough to save Twilight!_

But Starlight couldn't help her curiosity, and uncertainty, from craving the obvious.

"Who are you, exactly?" she wondered, doing her best to sound aloof despite the frantic bouncing of her heart. "Or should I say: _what_ are you?"

 _"_ OLd _,"_ Draggle answered.

"Gee. Thanks."

Reeka clarified, "OlDeR tHaN yOuR pErCePtIoN oF tHe WoRd. wE'vE bEeN aRoUnD lOnG bEfOrE tHe CoNcEpTiOn Of EqUeStRiA… bEfOrE eVeN tHe FoRmAtIoN Of ThE tHrEe pOnY tRiBeS!"

 _They're only gonna be vague about it._ The prospect disturbed Starlight far more than it annoyed her. Everything she thought she knew about these creatures was just sent into a tailspin.

 _O-kay,_ she summarized, _so I got myself into a deal with beings older than Equestria itself, more powerful than anypony who ever lived, and OH! Are carnivores... Super! Great job, Starlight. You REALLY outdid yourself this time! Ponyfeathers, if I get out of this intact? Twilight'll never NEVER trust me to make my own decisions again..._

Draggle breathed heavily, a gale wailing through a long, dark tunnel. "iT's BeEn A lOnG, lOnG tImE sInCe ThEn… H'aH, tHe MeMoRiEs! ThE jOy! tHe ENdLeSs PoNy BuFfEtS sMoOzIe WoUlD bRiNg Us FoR mOnThS aFtEr," she sighed once more, cupping a huge hand to her narrow chest. "yOuR sMeLl, StArLiGhT, iT's ToRtUrE! yOu ReEk oF sHaMpOo, As If YoU bAtHe In ThE sTuFf!"

"U-Uh'm-"

Starlight leaped back a foot as Reeka stomped forth. "i CaN't TaKe It AnYmOrE!" Her claws were poised to grab the mare. "hYdIA, pLeAsE, sHe DoEsN't NeEd AlL fOuR lEgS fOr LaTeR-"

" _nO_!" she snapped with finality, forcing Reeka to shrink back into the group like a child.

Hydia inhaled deep. "wHo We ArE dOeS nOt MaTtEr, NoR iS iT aNy Of YoUr CoNcErN. yOu NeEd OnLy To KnOw ThAt We HaVe PoWeR. fOrRbIdDeN pOwEr, ThE kInD tHaT rUnS dEeP iN tHe HeArT oF tHiS lAnD's FoUnDaTiOn."

Such boasts would make even Trixie cackle at their absurdity... hearing it second-hoof, of course. It was a bold claim, Starlight mused, and she wouldn't put it past these creatures to twist the narrative, her fear, and the logic she so heavily relied upon to get her to dance to their tune.

" _Very_ interesting. And is Princess Celestia aware of this?"

 _"uS...?"_ droned Draggle.

"No, I mean-"

"OuR mAgIc?" Reeka purred, going pinky-up.

She found herself speechless once more. Hydia's hands clapped noiselessly together. "wE aRe OnE iN tHe SaMe - RoOtEd In ThE lAnD, TiEd To sHaCkLeS oF fAtE. dEsTiNy Is MaGiC, yOu SeE…"

"aNd FrIeNdShIp Is MaGiC!" Reeka's hands shot up.

A chuckle rumbled in the air like distant thunder. "fRiEnDsHiP iS dEsTiNy, StArLiGhT - a BoOk, WrItTeN aNd PrEdEtErMiNeD, nO mAtTeR wHeRe YoUr FanTaSiEs LiE," Hydia cryptically explained. "tHaT iS lAw. We MaY nOt Be ThE aUtHoRs…"

"BuT wE aRe ThE rEaDeRs," Draggle finished. "AnD wE kNoW tHe EnDiNg Of EvErY sToRy ThAt WiLl EvEr Be." She held the last syllable in a long, smoky hiss.

The fact that they are one with the land itself carried a slew of implications that chilled her to the bone.

 _That's how they do it. That's how they know everything…_ Unease had festered within her bosom like a disease, corroding her innards with every word that echoed in her brain.

 _No matter what happens here, they won't be surprised, because they already know—_

"Then tell me how Princess Twilight's ends, _now_!" Starlight snapped. She hated the shakiness of her demand, it screamed of the facade she wore.

Draggle answered with a delighted coo. "OoH, sHe'S sNiPpIeR tHaN yOuR aVeRaGe PoNy! _"_

"I am _not_ your average pony," Starlight threatened, forgetting she had no way to access her powerful magic without feeling pain. _What is that, anyway?_ She had no plans asking the matrons of this land. Starlight surmised it was a hex, cast upon these woods by the Witches in anticipation of her arrival.

"HmM… nO, yOu ArE cErTaInLy NoT," Hydia pondered, and Starlight wondered if maybe she had a way of reading her mind, as well. Her skeletal hand stroked whatever hid beneath her face-cloth. Starlight's eyes aimed there instead of her rotten eye sockets. "dEsTiNy HaS bRoUgHt YoU tO oUr AbOdE tHiS dAy, StArLiGhT gLiMmEr. AlL tHaT yOu HaVe EvEr SuFfErEd WaS bUt A 'nOtHeR sToNe CoMpRiSiNg ThE pAtH hErE." She huffed in amusement. "aNd YoU'vE gOt QuItE tHe StOrY tO TeLl, HaVeN't YoU? A fOaLhOoD cHaRaCtErIzEd By A bRoKeN hEaRt, WhIcH lEd To ThE cReAtIoN oF a CuTe LiTtLe CuLt! AnD tHaT… iNeViTaBlY rEsUlTeD iN yOuR tUtElAgE uNdErNeAtH tHe PrInCeSs oF EqUeStRiA."

"You mean of Friendship? That's Twilight. Who you described was Princess Celestia."

"oF cOuRsE, oF cOuRsE."

Starlight didn't like what they were implying, but preferred not to pursue this rabbit down its hole, and ignored it. _They're just trying to mess with you Starlight. They said it themselves._ But then, what was a lie? What was fact?

Hydia continued before she could decide on anything. "FuNnY hOw It AlL fElL iNtO pLaCe, Is iT nOt? YoU wErE a _VeRy_ NaUgHtY pOnY, aFtEr AlL." Her finger waved in a scolding manner. "GoOd InTeNtIoNs Be CuRsEd, I sAy! YoU oUgHtA hAvE bEeN pUt To DeAtH fOr AlMoSt DeStRoYiNg EqUeStRiA."

Starlight blinked, eyes at half-mast. Once upon a time, those words would have sent her into a tailspin of guilt.

"Uh-huh, you're point?" she asked, beckoning them with a hoof. "I know I was horrible. I know I hurt a lot of ponies - ponies that, yes, I _did_ care about, despite all the lies and deceptions. And although I will never forget that, I've forgiven _myself_ a long time ago."

There was a beat.

Reeka started clapping her hands in joy. "sO iNsPiRiNg."

"ShE's CoMe SuCh A lOnG wAy!" Draggle wept. Her hands went up, and Starlight presumed it was to wipe fake tears away from those oily-black lights in her mane. "dO yOu ReMeMbEr ThAt SoNg, GiRlS? DoEs It NoT fIt ThIs OnE lIkE a GlOvE?"

"We Do AnD iT dOeS, dRaGgLe! ShE cErTaInLy _HaS,_ " Hydia hissed. "YoU'vE pLaYeD yOuR pArT qUiTe WeLl iN sHaPiNg ThE fUtUrE oF eQuEsTrIa, StArLiGhT gLiMmEr. AnD sO hAs ThE pRiNcEsS. A cRyInG sHaMe ShE wOn'T kEeP yOu On A lEaSh FoR mUcH lOnGeR. wHo KnOwS wHaT yOu'Ll Do AfTeR sHe'S pErIsHeD?"

"TWILIGHT'S-!" Starlight froze, her body rigid. She exhaled everything within her, all the pain and fear that had built since before meeting the Witches. _This is it._ "...She's not going to die. I won't let that happen!" Her voice muffled in the gloom around her, and the ensuing silence lasted just long enough for Starlight to process her spike in anger.

It was not solely grief which colored her exclamation, nor the perpetual terror she felt for her friend's life. But the idea that Twilight befriended Starlight to "leash" her cut deep into personal doubts not even the princess knew about. It took Starlight a year to overcome such horrible thoughts, and she refused to allow these evil creatures to manipulate her with them.

"nO," Reeka mumbled after the pause, for once in conflict with her petrified glee. "sHe IsN't. _YeT_. yOu'Re HeRe To MaKe SuRe ThAt DoEsN't HaPpEn."

"Yes," sighed the mare, head dropping.

"aNd WhY dO yOu WiSh FoR tHaT, pOnY?" Hydia asked. "yOuR hUnCh WaS coRrEcT, aNd NoT sPiKe'S: wE tRuLy _CaN_ gIvE wHaT-eVeR yOuR hEaRt DeSiReS. tHe WoRdS oF a BoOk CaN bE rEwRItTeN, aFtEr AlL! yOu CoUlD bE tHe NeW pRiNcEsS oF fRiEnDsHiP! pOwEr'S aLwAyS aLlUrReD yOu, AfTeR aLl. JuSt sAy ThE wOrD aNd We CaN rEwRiTe FaTe LiKe _ThAt_."

 _Liars. They know exactly how this ends. And even if they were being honest..._ Starlight opened her mouth to protest.

Hydia knew her frighteningly well though: "BuT yOu WoN'T." The witch's hands folded behind her back. "yOu NeVeR wIlL. aNd So I wILl RePeAt My QuEsTiOn: _WhY_ iS tHiS pOnY wOrTh SaViNg? _WhY_ iS sHe WoRtH oUr PriCeS - _yOuR_ pRiCe?"

Starlight scoffed. "As if you don't know already!" A beat passed - they didn't plan on responding.

Groaning, she shot back, "Okay, well, why the hoof not!? If there's a pony whose worth it, it's Twilight - a thousand times over!"

With a hoof to her heart, and her eyes shut, Starlight was in her own little word: "...Twilight's one of my closest friends... sometimes I even think she's my _best_ friend... She gave me a _chance_ when she didn't have to! She's an amazing pony with a big heart, and I would never, _ever_ forgive myself if there was a chance that I could return the favor, and didn't take it."

"I'm not afraid of what'll come after!" Starlight Glimmers eyes flared open with a stomp forward, her chest puffed out. "I'll sacrifice _anything_ to save her! Whatever it takes, whatever your price, whatever you demand of me _,_ I will meet it! Just so long as you save Twilight and restore her to full health - without anything different from how she was before getting sick."

There was a beat before Draggle pointed a Spike-sized finger at her. "YoU sUrE aRe BrAvE, sTaRlIgHt. I hOpE, fOr BoTh YoUr SaKeS, tHaT tHeSe BoAsTs HoLd A lOt mOrE tHaN _mErE wEIgHt_. WhAdDa Ya ThInK, hYdIa?"

Silently the fog rolled between them. Hydia and Reeka turned their heads to one another, neither speaking, nor able to look into one another's eyes. Two huge, black rats scurried past one another, in and out of the mother's eye sockets.

Starlight dry-heaved as Hydia purred, "YoU'lL fOrFeIt _AnYtHiNg_?"with a deliberate turn of the head.

"Yeah," she gasped.

"EvEn ThAt WhIcH iS mOsT pReCiOuS tO yOu?" Reeka's "grin" deepened.

Strength fled her legs, but Starlight fought not to tremble in place. "You mean, my life," she guessed haltingly. Although she anticipated this to be the ultimate offer, and she was indeed prepared to give it up for Twilight, the thought of dying here, alone, terrified Starlight to no end, but no more than the idea of what would happen after the exchange:

Would Twilight be okay? What would she do to Spike, after he revealed the secret behind her miraculous recovery?

These worries encircled her heart like a python, but they all whisked away before she could truly dwell upon them once Reeka snapped, "No, NoT yOuR mIsErAbLe LiFe." Starlight sighed internally with relief. "oF tHiS yOu CaN bE aSsUrEd: YoU'lL lIvE, aNd PrInCeSs TwIlIgHt ShAlL rEtUrN tO fUlL hEaLtH. sHe'Ll ThAnK yOu FoR tHe NoBlE sAcRiFiCe YoU mAdE." She sounded on the verge of laughter.

Starlight demanded, "So what is it you want, exactly?"

"oH, iT's NoT wHaT wE wAnT, lItTlE pOnY! tHiS Is AlL aBoUt YoU, aNd WhAt YoU aRe WiLlInG tO sUfFeR aNd SaCrIfIcE fOr ThE pOnY wHo ChAnGeD yOuR lIfE. iN tRuTh, ThErE's ReAlLy No ReAsOn YoU sHoUlD eVeN _wAnT_ tO kNoW! yOu'Ve AlReAdY tOlD uS wHaT yOu'Re WiLlInG tO dO fOr HeR, wHy ShOuLd ThE 'wHaT' mAtTeR iN tHiS cAsE?"

Starlight gulped her sudden inability to find words. "W-Well," she started, "I'd like to know… what exactly I'm giving up, for one!"

"nO. tHeSe ArE tHe PaRaMeTeRs YoU eStAbLiShEd," said Draggle.

Reeka tittered. "bIg WoRdS, sIsTeR oF mInE."

"SI-LENCE," Hydia boomed, an explosion of thunder tearing through the foggy realm. Starlight and the other Witches shied in defense, but when nothing came, emerged - the pony much slower and hesitant to meet Hydia's eye-holes again.

"mY mIsErAbLe DaUgHtEr SpEaKs TrUe," she said. "YoU DiD nOt SpEcIfY, tHuS wE aReN't ObLiGeD tO fUlFilL a ReQuEsT oUtSiDe Of OuR aRrAnGeMeNt."

"I didn't even know I was making it!"

Hydia tsk'd. "yOu ShOuLd LeArN tO tHiNk BeFoRe AcTiNg, FoR oNcE."

Starlight cursed her passionate heart. She said 'anything,' and the witches were abusing that loophole in a way that'd make Iron Will's eyes fill with liquid pride.

"I suppose you're right," she admitted. Starlight's eyes fell, lingering aside to the sunshine stone on the rock. She met Hydia's eye sockets with steely determination - assuming those rats didn't come up again.

"Ok..." she breathed, "Alright, I'll do it! I'll give whatever you ask of me. Just as long as you save Twilight."

With a wave of the hand, Hydia informed her, "iT iS dOnE."

"Wait, that's it?" Starlight expected more of a light show. Given how today went, this really should have been the least of her worries.

"YeS. yOuR eNd Of ThE bArGaIn WiLl bE fUlFilLeD oNcE yOu SeE tHe EnD rEsUlT fOr YoUrSeLf. EvEn ThOuGh YoU dIdN't SpEcIfY tHaT, wElL, wE'rE jUsT fEeLiNg GeNeRoUs ToDaY…"

Starlight doubted that was the reason, but she did not wish to look a gift-horse in the mouth. "And you'll keep your word?" she asked threateningly. "I'm not gonna wake up and find Twilight turned into a skateboard, am I? Or watch her turn to sand before my eyes as soon as I see she's better?"

"My, _My_ , YoU _aRe_ MiStRuStFuL," Draggle teased. "wE'rE wIsH gRaNtErS! iS tHaT nOt WhAT yOu SaId?"

"Um…" After this meeting, Starlight had little idea of what these creatures were. She didn't even know if the bargain struck was anything like a contract, or part of some sadistic mind game.

"'a WoRd OnCe GiVeN, wE nEvEr BrEaK.' tHaT hAs AlWaYs BeEn OuR pHiLoSoPhy," Hydia explained.

"I just want Twilight to be alright," Starlight moaned, feeling more and more like she'd made a horrible mistake.

"fEaR nOt, StArLiGhT gLiMmEr, ShE wIlL bE," said Hydia, to which Starlight's entire body sagged with relief.

That is until Reeka added, "bUt NoT fOr LoNg," and made her go rigid. Reeka stepped back, as did her mother.

 _They're just leaving._ The pony gaped and stammered. "Hey, w- _wait_! Whadda you-?!"

"EvErYpOnY wIlL kNoW wHaT yOu DiD," the mother said with sinister intonations, as if casting a curse, "aNd EvErYpOnY wIlL lOvE yOu FoR iT. eVeRyPoNy, ExCePt ThE oNe WhO mAtTeRs MoSt."

The two Witches crept back, melting into the foggy treeline as a screen of white obscured them.

Draggle, who caught up in a single pace, added, "AnD wHeN yOu LoSe AlL yOu HoLd DeAr…"

'WhEn,' AnD nOt 'If!'" Reeka chirped.

"...tHeN yOu WiLl KnOw HeArTbReAk, AnD oNlY hEaRtBrEaK, tO tHe EnD oF yOuR dAyS."

"bUt It WiLl Be WoRtH iT!" Hydia whipped a finger in Starlight's direction. "BeCaUsE yOu SuFfErEd It AlL, tO sAvE pRiNceSs. tWiLiGhT. sPaRkLe."

 _Run, Starlight._ Her hooves remained rooted in place, peering through the fog to watch their vanishing silhouettes.

Reeka's waved one hand, _"M'_ W _H_ A _!"_ while "blowing" a kiss with the other. "SwEeT dReAmS, cUtE LiTtLe pOnY!"

"KeEp YoUr FrIeNdS cLoSe, StArLiGhT!" Draggle added, with Hydia shouting in a sing-song voice, "iF yOu CaN! sEe YoU vErY sOoN!"

And together, they cackled - all six of their voices: _"_ K _'Y_ E _H-_ H _E_ H _-H_ E _H-_ H _E_ H _-H_ E _E_ E _H!_ D _'O_ H _-H'_ O _H-_ H _'O_ H _-H'_ O _H-_ H _'O_ H _-H'_ O _O_ H _!"_

Their laughter followed Starlight out of the clearing. It trailed after her all throughout the fabled tunnel of "Flutter Valley;" ringing in her ears.

 _Gotta see Twilight,_ threw her hooves forward upon exiting the bog. _Please be okay, please, please, please,_ pumped her glutes toward the anchored balloon.

Inside the basket, the mare growled in frustration in fear. "Why won't you go!?" Her eyes, then her person, flung toward the rope looped around the pine tree. Starlight did not revel in the feeling of her magic returned as it sliced through the rope, sending her careening toward the civilized world.

* * *

 _"'When,' and not 'if!'"_

 _"Everypony will know what you did..._

 _"...except the one who matters most."_

 _"And when you lose_ all _you hold dear... then you will know heartbreak, and only heartbreak, to the end of your days."_

 _"'When,' and not 'if!'"_

 _"But it will be worth it! Because you suffered it all, to save Princess. Twilight. Sparkle."_

"When… and not… if…" Starlight murmured.

The Witches lingered in her brain, goading Starlight, mocking her with the painfully obvious. She was cursed now, incapable of straying far from thoughts of what transpired. Although she had always suffered in such a way, a terrible record of over-analyzing would testify. From a perspective, it's what brought her to the Witches of Flutter Valley in the first place.

 _What could they possibly want, if not my life?_ There was nothing tangible that was so important to Starlight. Nothing but her friendships, but those were eternal, powerful even. Twilight, Sunburst, Trixie and everyone else, they wouldn't just up and abandon her based upon the whims of the Witches.

There was so much about them she didn't know. Questions sprang relentlessly from their existence alone, not to mention everything they had said. Starlight may never know about them, forever a curiosity, and she made peace with that easily. The farther from their abode, the better.

For that and much more, Starlight was prepared before marching toward the utter unknown with but a foal's book and copious, bordering on naive, levels of faith.

But one thing she could be certain of: they had absolutely no control over ponies themselves. Otherwise, the world would be a much sadder, sadistic place. Their power implies a rooting to the physical properties of the world - subtle things, as inconspicuous as a breeze in the air, or the heat on a particularly sunny day. Expelling a virus from somepony's bloodstream was foal's play to them. They probably enhanced Twilight's next glass of water with some disease-killing magic, if Starlight had to guess.

She couldn't stop thinking of how simple it all was. When every one of their books failed, their medicines, and their magic, too, Hydia needed only to wave her hand to save one of the most important ponies in Equestria.

The price, however? Completely, frighteningly unknown.

Starlight couldn't deny it: hard times lay ahead, and they knew it, literally. They gloated about it, because they knew this would torment a worrisome pony like Starlight Glimmer the entire trip back.

 _But if they didn't want me to give up my life, then what else is there? Unless all that talk was just some sadistic game... Yeah, that's it!_

 _They know me - they took_ pleasure _in making me uncomfortable. They must've known what would make the journey home some of the most grueling hours of my life! ...Right!?_

It was torture, guessing their motives - as unknown as whatever awaited Starlight back home.

Once Canterlot Mountain's prideful silhouette faded into view, and the big, blocky character of Twilight's castle steadily grew in size, Starlight was jittering her hooves, wondering what awaited her beyond its crystalline doors. "UGH! Can't this thing go any faster?!" she moaned.

Despite their assurances, Starlight didn't trust a word of these Witches for a second. Deciphering the truths and the lies made up a better part of the return trip, and Starlight remained where she was before leaving Flutter Valley.

 _They could have been lying about everything!_ _Or Twilight, even..._

Tragedy could be what awaited her in Ponyville. Starlight, perched upon the basket's edge, watched the unassuming village crowned in a lazy, warm afternoon grow expand before her.

 _What if this is one of those deals where I engineer my own destruction, in an attempt to stop it, and I ruin EVERYTHING I worked so hard to build here!?_

Starlight Glimmer's heart jumped and leaped and writhed in simultaneous agony. Moaning, she ducked into the basket, curled in an embrace with her tail silky, wavy tail.

 _"Can I eat her liver, Momma? That was always my favorite."_

Her chest ached, swelling with too much fear. "Just stop stressing, Starlight," she consoled herself.

 _"And when you lose_ all _you hold dear..."_

 _"Stop... Stressing_..." She started grooming her tail in frenetic strokes.

 _"Do we horrify you?"_

" _JUST STOP STRESSING FOR PONY'S SAKE!_ "

In an instant, Starlight Glimmer had her eyes closed, her horn crackling with emotion, and detailed images of the Witches. Their words gripped her heart with deathly constriction. But amidst the fog, Starlight visualized home, her friends, and Princess Twilight alive and well.

Her dark world flashed momentarily, at the same time as a sharp cork-pop rattled her teeth. Tingles shot from her head to the very ends of her hooves, then dissipated quick as they came.

One eye popped open, then the other: she was at the castle threshold. A small smile of relief was all Starlight could muster before dread choked her, and rendered her stiff in the neck.

Starlight whipped her head around, her forelock flouncing with the motion. In the horizon, she caught sight of a purple speck against a cloudless blue sky.

"Whups," she blushed.

 _Although,_ Starlight rationalized, _I_ did _conjure an anchoring charm on the basket when I saw Ponyville. If I did my calculations right (and I_ always _do my calculations right), Cherry Berry should have her balloon back right where she left it._

Still, Starlight couldn't help but feel guilty for taking it, even if for just a day. Once, she would argue that it was all for Twilight's sake, that she needed to fly there when some force didn't allow her to teleport to the place in the storybook's picture. As if that excused her from taking responsibility?

 _It was stealing... I didn't even think about what I was doing until I was already high up in the air! Ugh, guilt stinks..._

"Twilight'll probably make a write an apology letter," mused Starlight, rolling her eyes. But she accepted her fate. Twilight's teachings seemed to finally ingrain themselves in her, however, for she was compelled to make one for Cherry anyhow.

A beat passed, and Starlight Glimmer felt dread plummet to the pit of her stomach.

"Twilight..."

Starlight's magic punched through the castle's front doors, slamming them into the walls and sending a mighty boom throughout its maze of corridors. "TWILIGHT!?" she cried, galloping up the stairs and taking the right-leading set.

Another emotion-fueled teleport brought Starlight's pounding heart before the Princess of Friendship's bedroom, signified by the starburst cutie mark blazoned upon it. Before she could push the door open herself it did so for her, and Starlight met with the surprised disposition of Fluttershy.

Her wings shot up on the spot, rocketing the bedding which sat upon her back up into the air. Before Starlight could get a word in, she was being gently hugged by her pegasus friend.

"Starlight Glimmer!" she cooed.

"Fl-!"

"Oh, my," she pulled away swiftly, pink in her cheeks. "I'm sorry for attacking you like that! But, I, just couldn't help myself!"

"Flutter-" She was being hugged once more. With a blink, Starlight resumed, "Fluttershy, mind telling me what you're so... _forward_ about?"

Deep down, Starlight sensed it already. She felt it rise, gentle and welcome like her own smile as both ponies pulled away from one another.

Excitement made Starlight ask waveringly, "Is Twilight okay?"

Although every one of her friends tended to her, it was Fluttershy and a gaggle of animal friends who served as Twilight's 24/7 bedside serviceponies. They kept up with the chores on Spike's behalf, who, too, seldom left his lifelong companion's side.

"Oh, she's more than okay, Starlight!" the pegasus happily announced. "She's better than ever. I dropped her daffodil sandwich and made a mess when she came _flying_ into the kitchen. She was wearing the biggest, most happiest smile I'd ever seen on anypony!" Her face fell for a spell, scrunched with thought, before bashfully adding, "I mean, on a pony who isn't Pinkie Pie, that is."

Starlight grinned hard enough for her cheeks to hurt. "She's okay!?"

Fluttershy pushed against Starlight's chest gently, beaming warmly as she answered, "Yes. _You did it, Starlight_. Twilight is saved, and it's all thanks to you!"

Most ponies would cry with joy upon hearing such appraisal. But Starlight, as she affirmed herself to the Witches, wasn't like most ponies.

Her friend's appraisal hit like a buck to the gut, forcing the wind out of her.

 _"...a_ n _d_ e _v_ e _r_ y _p_ o _n_ y _w_ i _l_ l _l_ o _v_ e _y_ o _u_ f _o_ r _i_ t _."_

"F-F-F- _Fluttershy_?"

Concern wiped away her joy. "Oh dear, Starlight!" she cried in dismay. "What in Equestria's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Starlight backed away on tremulous legs. The weight of it all came in full. She felt lightheaded. "Sp-Spike, h-h- _he_..." It was an effort to even think of words to say.

 _Spike told them all. They all know, and they all love me for it, just like the Witches said!_

Her legs wobbled backwards. Fluttershy advanced, forcing herself to sound soothing despite her evident discomfort: "It's alright, Starlight. Yes, Spike told us everything right after you left. We were all _very_ worried about you, you know. But we knew you needed to give your plan a try! There's nothing you should worry about, though - Twilight doesn't even know where you'd gone, or what you did."

Fluttershy elbowed Starlight playfully, saying, "We thought about leaving that for you when she returns from Canterlot. She was really excited to show the Princesses how much better she'd gotten!" The Pegasus giggled.

Her words were obviously meant to comfort the increasing-panic within Starlight Glimmer. All she heard was that Twilight didn't know, and the prophecy Hydia foretold, setting a chill in her very bones:

 _"..._ e _x_ c _e_ p _t_ t _h_ e _o_ n _e_ w _h_ o _m_ a _t_ t _e_ r _s_ m _o_ s _t."_

"Where's Twilight?" Starlight asked, but her voice was too quiet and too broken for even softspoken Fluttershy to understand. _She knows. She knows and she hates me, just like Hydia promised!_

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm asking you where-"

 _"_ AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH! _Starlight, BEHIND YOU!"_

Starlight flinched before whipping her head around, having sensed the dark presence behind her half a heartbeat prior.

She didn't even get to fully turn before one enormous, boiled hand latched around her throat, and the other clenched her horn tight, cutting off her magic. Starlight strangled on a scream as she was lifted, only faintly hearing Fluttershy cry out her name in horror. She was thrust into hollowed-out stare of Hydia, Matriarch of Flutter Valley, with two sets of beady, green eyes watching her from the darkness.

The hand upon Starlight's horn squeezed it in a death-grip, making her cry out.

"TiMe To PaY uP, sTaRlIgHt GlImMeR!" Hydia squealed in delight.

An appendage as familiar as her own horn, in its exact place to be precise, was pressed to the right.

The pain, her scream, was instantaneous.

"Starlight!"

Her howls rose in intensity, as did the pressure Hydia exerted, as did Fluttershy's ragged cries: "You let her go, _NOW_!"

Half a heartbeat later, with but a sudden, mighty turn of the wrist...

" _Star-ligh-high-hight_! No! No, Starlight!"

...the sound of a thousand twigs being snapped in half boomed thunderously in her ears.

Fluttershy's scream was bloodcurdling.

It in Starlight's dreams as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, unable to fully process the horrible pain before her entire world went dark. Hydia's hysteria overpowered Fluttershy's shrieking and name-shouting and crying, long after the Witch dissipated from existence and let the Broken Student's unconscious body fall to the ground.

* * *

End of Loyalty - The Broken Student


	2. The Broken Body (Pt 1)

Starlight Glimmer flung forth, lungs swelling with halting gasps of air. The adrenaline sparks prickling her skin sent shocks down her spine, an icy caress beneath a sweat-matted coat.

Bugged-out eyes bounced about the room for three to's and two fro's before halting right - an hourglass and potted plant atop the bookshelf directly beside her, signifying the security of her own room, in her home - at Twilight's.

Pale light shone upon the wall before her, giving the bedroom's calming sorcery-blues and foallike paraphernalia a comfortable gloominess. A glance over the shoulder revealed Celestia just beginning to raise her sun above Equestria.

All the while Starlight hadn't stopped panting, nor stilled her racing heart, although both gradually receded in intensity as these details occurred to her upon putting both hooves upon her chest, feeling its beating song shudder against them. _This is real. I'm alive, and this is just..._

She mumbled, realizing, "Just a dream..."

Starlight shuddered, it was so vivid and realistic. She couldn't help but wonder why Luna never came to dispel the nightmare, as this was far, far worse than her reservations about the Sunset Festival.

" _Then again_ ," she levitated off the covers and hopped out of bed, "Princess Luna _does_ only seem to only appear when a pony's dream correlates with some deep, internal struggle." Starlight tittered knowingly, for there hadn't been such issues since the previous ordeal - and Celestia knows Twilight was probably getting sick of her never-ending list of hangups.

As Starlight's magic pulled the blanket taut, lifted her mattress, and neatly tucked it in, she pondered over what the dream could have possibly meant.

Considering, her face fell slightly. "I guess... I _am_ afraid of losing Twilight..." she lamented, glancing aside. Everything she loved about her newer, better life, had all stemmed from this one pony. And although they'd had disagreements in the past, and a failure here and there on both sides, Twilight Sparkle had grown from a pony she absolutely despised, to one she...

 _Click! ...Click-clack!_ rattled the noise of what seemed to be wood upon wood. But Starlight didn't hear, preoccupied with the voice of her heart:

 _Or, rather, Twilight had become a pony I would do... or rather, that I cared about so much, I guess I'm willing to... I mean, I AM willing, to... to..._

Starlight shook her head. _Too early to think about this stuff... And hungry, besides!_

Though in truth, deep inside, she was painfully aware of her inability to elaborate upon her friendships, their importance. The content of her dream was simply too grand and too complex for her to sort out on her own, although perhaps it would make for a sweet, sappy little friendship lesson with her mentor, who would no doubt love it.

Further dwelling on the dream was entirely, completely gone from Starlight's mind, her prior musings drowned out with a desire for food and another to fix her matted, pink coat. Within her friendship-framed mirror, Starlight Glimmer smiled contently at the mare who matched her numerous poses, all while a brush hurriedly raked along her sides, neck, back and flanks - grooming out knots, flattening fluff, and smoothing the rest, all to the tune of a listless hum.

By then, she forgot about her dream after feeling content with her tidier appearance. Starlight shuddered in pleasure from the scratch her brush had given her - though a glance at its pink-wigged bristles made her blanch, blush and set it aside for Future Starlight to deal with.

A burst of teal-colored light turned her bedroom into the dining hall. She took a deep breath, forming a smile on her face - a greasy aroma assaulted her still-awakening senses and nearly flooded her mouth.

"M' _woah_ ," her half-mast gaze ascended to twenty-five percent-mast, "good morning, life. I'd forgotten you could be so pleasant."

"Huh? Oh! Hey Starlight," chirped a voice behind her, "I didn't hear you come in."

Starlight whirled to find herself having been teleported facing away from the dining hall's big, golden roundtable. Several hoofsteps behind her, Spike was on top of a stool, still concentrating on divvying up hay-bacon strips between three plates bearing an iconic starburst.

He was murmuring under his breath, "'Kay, let's see here... Twilight likes the maple-seasoned," a claw pointing at them, and one plate, "I get the crispies, and _Starlight_..." he said aloud.

"...Likes her's warm." She gave Spike a "good morning" boop on the noggin, as he quipped, "Right - so just hay."

"I just don't like burned stuff!" Starlight smiled, despite herself and Spike's attack on her way of life. "Besides, you still season the hay with that uh, that, uh," her hoof rolled, "plop... prickly... _the spicy stuff_."

Spike deadpanned at her. "Paprika?"

" _Yeah_ , the spicy stuff! _Really_ tasty." Spike sighed black smoke out his nostrils as Starlight giggled knowingly, although in disbelief that that inside joke still bothered him.

When she was first introduced to a Spike-made meal, Starlight could not believe how delicious it was. She didn't know that for his new friend, Spike even busted out the paprika from his "special spice-rack," given to him by Pinkie Pie for his most recent birthday. He was fishing for compliments, but only managed to reel in "tasty"s all throughout dinner, Starlight blissfully unaware that she was essentially an Earth Pony foal proudly reciting magical theories by Starswirl - theories _written_ by the sage himself... when _he_ was a foal!

Ever since, Starlight would always commend Spike's cooking with a detailed, concise, "Really tasty."

Still grinning at the memory, she stepped up beside Spike to admire the homemade hay bacon, sharing space with actual food, no less, albeit very little of it: their omelettes bulged with spinach, mushrooms, diced tomatoes, and gooey cheddar. Wisps of steam rose above them, scented of garden-freshness and the subtle, sharp tang of pepper he must have tucked away inside.

"Oh, wow, Spike!" she breathed. "This is am- _h'ayzing_! I...! _Wow_ ," she gasped once more. Starlight's head moved about, getting different angles of their enormous omelettes. "I don't think I'll need to eat anything for the rest of the day after this!" Which was probably Spike's idea, given that it was Sunday; this meant magic practice, and that meant two purple ponies needing a lot of energy.

Starlight couldn't help but feel like she really missed out by not helping him and Twilight in the kitchen, as their weekly tradition ordains. "Now I'm not one to turn down your home-cooking - _you_ know that. But, I gotta say: you didn't have to do this yourself!"

Two years of constant appraisal from the Crystal Empire had granted Spike with the ability to maintain a purple hue in his cheeks. Yet, his smile was sheepish as he shrugged at her. "Eh, it's what I'm here for," he answered proudly.

"Well, _yeah..._ buuut I, _really_ didn't expect you to start Sunday without us!"

"Oh, I didn't either. But the two of you just wouldn't get up! Whether I'd knock or holler, the two of you were out - and I mean, _out_! Like O-U-T _out_! I swear you two must have lost track of time and mistook dawn for dusk! Oh, and before, when you said 'good morning?' That'd be a 'good afternoon,' Starlight."

"R'high-hight!" Starlight sucked air through her teeth. " _My bad_..." Her cheeks burned as she ran a hoof down her mane, discreetly acknowledging the midday sun - their home's tree-stained, sea-green windows were rendered powerfully luminescent this time of day.

"So! W'uh... what, exactly inspired you to go all out like this?" Starlight grew a smirk, nudging the dragon's round little belly. "Saw your chance to cook without the Master Disasters looming overhead, right?"

"What? Nah, you and Twi are great! I love cooking with the two of you." In the brief pause between sentences, Starlight wondered how Spike could be lifelong companions with Twilight, a close friend of Applejack, and still retain this latent ability to lie with a completely straight face.

"I just saw an opportunity, what with the two of you tiptoeing the line between 'coma' and 'vegetable.' And you know what Rarity always says about opportunities, right?"

Starlight, in fact, didn't. "Uh, take them?" she offered.

Spike shrugged. "Basically. Anyway," he picked up the empty, greasy pan, easily as big as him, that he set aside, all while explaining, "I just figured I could use the time to shake up our usual ritual! Do something nice for the two of you."

He turned, his bright green eyes leveled with Starlight's from atop the stool as she cooed, "Oh, Spike, that's so thoughtful!"

"It's why we started doing these Sunday breakfasts anyway, since there's hardly enough time to just do things _all_ together, what with friends, duties, studies and stuff. So, why not have a nice, big breakfast that'll actually take _more_ than ten minutes to finish?"

Starlight nodded, understanding. It's not only been hard for Princess Twilight's household to have quality time together, but the Elements of Harmony seldom convene as one unless the fate of Equestria is involved.

She tossed such melancholy thinking aside like yesterday's garbage, and said to Spike as he gave his presentation the umpteenth once-over. "Well, I am one, _hungry_ pony this morn-noon," she tittered into her hoof, "so, having to wait _less_ for food is worth eliminating a chapter from our 'Sunday ritual! E'hem... j-just this once, of course."

Spike gave her a sidelong glance, smirking knowingly with an teasing, "Uh-huh." Starlight felt herself glow in the face.

"I've returned, _with coffee_!" Twilight's voice floated in from the kitchen as she entered, levitating a glass of orange juice and two steaming mugs of coffee, no doubt one of them loaded with cream and the other completely black. She didn't stop until reaching the table, but was caught off guard by her student's appearance amidst her trot. "Ah, Starlight! Good morning!" She giggled sweetly. "Or, _afternoon_ , rather. I do hope our late-night study session didn't throw off your sleep schedule!" She arrived at the table, a mug set at two seats.

Starlight couldn't help but smile at Twilight's kindness, but her teacher's endearing naivety was always an eye-roller. "One night isn't gonna ruin me, Twi. Ooh, hey, is that mine?" She spotted a magenta glow setting down OJ at her usual spot: across the table from Spike's, with the princess's between them.

Twilight chirped, "Yes, it's a little different from what you're used to, but I think you're gonna like it. I wasn't sure if you'd want apple juice like usual, orange juice, _or_ if today'd be the one where you felt like trying something different!" The ensuing pause was a second long enough for Spike to mutter out the corner of his muzzle, "So that's why she took so long..."

"Though would you like some, Starlight?" Twilight asked. "Apple juice or orange juice, I mean. Or I could fix you some of Rarity's homebrew! A pot's already made."

Starlight just stared, wide-eyed at her mentor for a beat before lowering her face into a hoof. "Oh, gosh, Twilight..." she chuckled.

"What!?" she cried defensively.

To say Starlight that was once disturbed by her accommodating nature would be a gross understatement - it made her downright existential once or twice - but it didn't take long to realize that Twilight overcompensating was as instinctive as her own habit of turning to magic for a familiar solution: it's just how her environment made her.

And as the Princess of Friendship, her mentor, and most importantly her friend, Twilight had the tendency to be cripplingly nice at times.

Cripplingly - as in, today for instance, where Spike's mutterings implied Twilight had spent beyond the duration of their conversation deciding what her student would want to drink.

But that just made it even more fun to mess with her!

Starlight was prepared to dismiss her teacher's ramblings and accept what she had, but then strolled towards her teacher, hiding a devious smirk underneath exaggerated annoyance. "Well, if I _always_ drink apple juice with breakfast, then what made you think I'd ask for something else?"

Across a span of three seconds, Twilight expressed dejection, embarrassment, and then what appeared to be an adamant objection in the making.

"Kidding! I'm kidding," Starlight tittered. "Orange juice is perfect."

"Oh, this isn't _just_ orange juice." She spoke as if prepared to demonstrate a new, complex spell. "Take a sip! I think you'll love it." The glass was in front of Starlight before she could even summon her own magic.

The glow wreathing it turned from magenta to teal, where Starlight analyzed the deep, ruddy orange before taking a deep, audible swig. The Apple Family's distinct, renowned sweetness cleansed the palate, and vanished in the back of her surprisingly parched throat. A beat later, a tangy aftertaste electrocuted her tongue before an earthier one settled, dampening the sensation and implying what made the overall beverage incredibly smooth going down.

"Woah," was all she could muster, and Twilight and a kitchen-retreating Spike's knowing giggle to one another implied both were in on it. Starlight would have bothered to question them, had Spike not disappeared and - oh, ponyfeathers, she was thirsty!

Starlight took yet another swig, this time near-emptying half the glass. "You like it?" Twilight asked, and her student gasped between sips, tilting her head all the way back with a rushed utterance of, "Really tasty."

Her teacher chuckled. "I'm glad to hear that! It's fifty-percent apple juice, because I _know_ that's your favorite," she added with an adorably smug amount of pride, "twenty-five percent orange juice, to give it a nice punch to the flavor, and then carrot juice for the last quarter so as to balance it all out!" Her forehooves pedaled in the air, and Starlight swallowed the last of her juice cocktail. "Best of all, it took me just one attempt to get it entirely catered to your taste palate! I mean, I'm you're teacher, and you're my student, and I don't think there's anypony who knows you better than I do!"

That was actually one-hundred percent true, but Twilight would likely see that as sad, maybe ask about her parents, thus ruining her jovial mood. Therefore, the student omitted her desire to make the quip.

"Not everypony's a friend like you, Twilight." This, she proclaimed with warmth blossoming in her bosom and love in her eyes.

Her teacher smiled bashfully, thankfully interpreting this as a remark as opposed to an admission. "Aw, that isn't true," she waved a hoof, her blush melting away. "There's tons of ponies as good a friend as me, some of them your own!"

Starlight completely understood what Twilight was saying, but she only agreed to a point: there simply weren't a lot of ponies like Twilight Sparkle, period.

"Would you like another glass? ...Starlight?"

"O-Oh, sure! I'll just-" Twilight, and her cup, winked out of existence - burning the ghost of an eager little smile in Starlight's vision as she flatly finished, "-go get it."

Gaze rolled to the ceiling, Starlight gave a slight shake of the head. "Oh, Twilight..." A humored smile crossed her muzzle.

In the early days of her reformation, Starlight was ever on-edge of her friends', well, _friendliness_. Her messed-up little brain quietly presumed it all an exaggeration, to ensure that true friendship was seen as worthwhile; logically, nopony would ever be so generous and welcoming - especially to her, no less. Needless to say, it wasn't long before the birth of Flurry Heart that she realized they were genuine, and made peace with what she felt was a breach on their hospitality.

"Alright, breakfast time!" Spike emerged from the kitchen door clutching silverware, with Twilight taking up the rear and levitating a big, crystal bowl of fruit salad, potato pancakes drizzled in Apple Family applesauce, and a pitcher of ice water in a magical field above her. While she went about setting their brunch buffet (and proceeding to take the time moving each one a millimeter into place), Starlight clasped Spike in her magic.

Like clockwork she bounced him to each of their table spots, where he precisely set the silverware and Starlight simultaneously floated their omelettes over, using the variously-cooked hay bacon strips for reference.

Before long, the Sparkle household was seated, stabbing their omelettes with forks and knives. Silence reigned for all of two seconds before a harmony of moans filled the dining hall.

"So tasty," Starlight mumbled, inciting a snort from her castlemates.

She flicked her gaze over to Twilight, Princess of Friendship, whose cheeks bulged with omelette and forelegs squeezed together in bliss. "You've... out-done yourshelf, Shpike!" she gargled. "h'ish ish _sho_ delicious!"

Beaming with pride, her assistant muttered low, "Little does Princess Sparkle know, I've loaded these with the greatest enemy known to Harmony: _gooey cheese_ ," he concluded in a dramatic intonation.

Starlight snorted some food down her throat as Twilight froze, her maw flatteringly wide open - forkful of omelette hovering between her teeth. She shrugged half a beat later, resigning to her fate, and resumed eating. "Too good to care," she reasoned, swallowing, and stabbing her breakfast - an aggressive clack of metal on porcelain resounded - Starlight noted stiffness in her folded wings, but a playful hardness to her stare that implied it all an exaggeration, though not completely.

Spike regarded them with a half-lidded gaze as he forked a hay bacon strip to his mouth, saying, "Two of the most powerful mares of our generation, everypony," before shoveling it in. "Starlight 'So Tasty' Glimmer, and _brave_ Princess Twilight, forcing all that gross, fatty, melted cheese into her stomach!"

His caretaker thumped both hooves thickly upon the golden table, snapping, "Do you want me to finish, or not?" with her fork jabbing the air before the snickering dragon.

As she floated another forkful to her muzzle, Starlight glanced from the corner of her eye and conjured a thin wisp of magic, which flicked Spike in the back of the head. Childish giggling fluttered amidst the vast emptiness of the dining hall. "They, They can perform feats unheard of by the greatest wizard in all of ponykind," Spike started, "but let's just hope the final battle doesn't involve food in anyway, or else we'll all be goners!"

Starlight flicked his noggin once more. "Anypony ever say how utterly hilarious you are, Spike?"

"If we're counting laughter for 'yes's, then all the time!" Twilight giggled softly into her foreleg. "Aha, see?"

Starlight's eyes found the ceiling, although deep in her bosom a familiar tingling writhed about - the tingle of friendship, belonging. A feeling she'd not experienced since before Sunburst left her life, and not again until after the reformation of the Changelings.

 _Home,_ was how Starlight described it, and it flared, overwhelmingly as if in agreement, almost making her grin on the outside and risk looking like a crazy pony.

"I am sorry I overslept this morning." Twilight frowned after swallowing a bite of her seasoned hay bacon. "I know how much you love the three of us cooking together every Sunday, Spike."

Her assistant waved a claw. "Eh, don't worry about it! I'm happy to just make something special for the three of us." Any lingering tingles in her breast that Starlight felt were instantly smothered upon hearing, "Besides, it's high time we had a Sunday that gave my poor little heart a rest." Spike whimpered dramatically, claw upon his heart and watery eyes to the ceiling.

Starlight and her face-stuffed mentor glanced to one another before she cried, "Hey, we're not _that bad_ in the kitchen!"

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" Spike waved his claws in defense. "But you have to understand," Starlight's ear stiffened, "that the kitchen is _my_ realm! My throne, my expertise! I can't imagine you _not_ cringing if you were performing high-level magic with, I dunno, _Rarity._ Though..." Spike hugged his cheese-caked fork to his scaly chest, "sh-she would probably be _perfect_ at it..."

Starlight rolled her eyes toward Twilight, who'd done the same. "Okay, okay, I get it," said the student, "you're just _massively embarrassed_ by our lack of finesse with a mixing bowl. I totally get it!"

"No, that's not what I-!"

A sharp bout of, _"Khoff! Khak-khak!"_ from across the table yanked Starlight's attention over to Twilight. She sat hunched over, fork hastily cast aside piled with egg and tomato, and both hooves clamped upon her muzzle.

"Woah, Twilight, are you alright?" her student asked. "That was quite the cough!"

A beat passed, and Twilight still hadn't moved. Her eyes remained clenched shut. Spike turned to exchange a concerned glance with Starlight. "Twi?" he asked, turning back.

Twilight's face lifted away from her hooves, her movements deliberate and stiff with... it wasn't until her eyes opened and stared intensely at Starlight Glimmer, did her student realize it was fear.

"Spike...?" Her voice was faint; Starlight's gaze flickered to her upturned hooves, and found red-speckled lilac. "I... I think I'm _bleeding_."

And half a heartbeat later, Twilight Sparkle flung her face over, coughing and gagging in one, gut-twisting sound - and blood coated the rest of her breakfast in a single, short burst.

Starlight's stool flung back against the wall as she shot up to her hooves. "Oh my gosh, Twilight!" she cried, horn igniting. Spike was at her side faster than she could teleport to her.

 _The rest was but a blur - Starlight only faintly recalled being beside Twilight as well, a hoof between her wings; she watched like a stupid spectator, just gaping in horror as Twilight painted her omelette once more, thankfully snapping the student out of her stupor, then._

 _"Spike, get Twilight to her room," she probably said, or rather, "Lay her out here, Spike - pen a letter to the Princesses."_

 _Maybe she just said, "I'll be right back," while not a word spoken was just as likely, and unfortunately the most plausible, prior to her winking to the hospital, grabbing the nearest doctor, and teleporting them back to the castle, all in the blink of an eye._

 _Although hoping beyond hope that her teacher would be fine, deep inside Starlight knew, somehow, that this was the day her life had fallen apart._

 _For the third time, that is._

* * *

Starlight Glimmer flung forth, lungs swelling with halting gasps of air. The adrenaline sparks prickling her skin sent shocks down her spine - an icy caress over a sweat-matted coat.

 _Dream,_ echoed her thoughts, faint against her pounding head. _Always the same dream..._

No matter what happened the previous day, any dream Starlight Glimmer would have inevitably transmuted into a perfect recreation of that fateful afternoon. The details of it were burned into her memory, branding Starlight forever with the memory of her mentor coughing up wet crimson upon a half-eaten omelette, mixing in a vile concoction with soupy, stringy yolk. She often banished that image from her memory, but any time eggs crossed Starlight's path, her stomach turned, the images reminding her of their existence, and the terror she felt that day.

 _It was just another Sunday, up until Twilight started coughing... up... b-blood._

She'll never forget, even though she wanted them to: the smell of Spike's breakfast, its once-delectable taste now akin to bile roiling in her stomach upon reminder; the laughs they shared together, what was said, how she felt inside every step of the way - from content, happy, all the way to sheer terror, inciting Starlight to awaken in a panic.

These thoughts encircled Starlight's mind as she sat, hunched over in trying to steady her racing heart until a pony whose familiar, albeit oddly tiny voice, made herself known:

"Starlight?" Trixie's uttered, soft enough to make Starlight hesitate in processing who precisely had spoken to her.

Whipping her face to the left, she squinted through a luminescent shaft of pale light shining in through the window between them - although cast in darkness the azure of a familiar unicorn's coat, bared of her stage garb, was unmistakable. "Trix?" Starlight croaked.

Her other best friend stood immediately from the stool at her desk and trotted over. Emerging from the light, Starlight's small, lopsided smile faded seeing an uncharacteristic melancholy in her friend's eyes. not quite met with her typical electric smile.

"Oh, Starlight..." she murmured, running a hoof down her forelock.

Starlight felt it bounce back into place beside her temple. She blinked once - needless to say, this was unusual for Trixie. "Um, hey!" She tittered awkwardly. "What, um, what-uh... what're ya doin' in my room?"

Her friend pulled back abruptly, wide-eyed. "Oh! I mean, _oh_ ," the magician waved a foreleg, rolling her eyes assuredly, "Trixie simply wished to see her best friend this morning! But Rarity told her you were still asleep, so she opted to wait by your side until you've emerged from your slumber."

 _Huh, so Rarity's here for some reason._ Starlight, returning her focus to Trixie, found her gaze had moistened, infecting her smile as well. "You look like a mess," she huffed gently.

"Oh, do I?" Wincing, Starlight rubbed a hoof upon her forehead, beside her horn where it pulsed with an internal ache since waking up. Starlight wracked her brain a moment, but was unable to recall anything that happened at the huge party last night - everything was sort of murky, which meant just one thing.

"I'm not usually much of a sugar-pony," she began, "but I guess yesterday was the exception, eh-h'em! ...I hope... And nothing further." It was the only logical explanation - she did remember being furious with the circumstances last night, it's not unlike her to isolate herself when feeling so wrathful, and even less so to seek a solution which would remedy her unhappiness. Cake was Starlight's weakness -  
especially since becoming addicted to Pinkie Pie's baking. Except she became highly irritable with too much sugar; perhaps, hopefully, she did not utterly embarrass herself or pick a fight with anypony.

The pain in her head flared suddenly. "I hope _you_ had a better time than I did." She looked over to Trixie, a hoof still cupping on eyes - her friend wore a humored smile, and that was all she took in. Except it looked a little strained for Trixie; it was sweet she didn't enjoy seeing Starlight in pain. "Ponyfeathers, I must have hit the dessert hard last night! Ugh..." Massaging her temple only made the pain crawl to the front of her forehead, beneath her horn.

"Last night?" Trixie wondered, but her own memory had delayed to catch up to her, and she said, "Ah, of course! Last night was Twilight's party, yes... Trixie was, ah, _curious_ as to your whereabouts, alongside our lesser-friends Maud, Thorax and Sunburst. You... weren't even in your room!" she decided quickly. "So, ah, Trixie and co. went about our business until _Rainbow Dash_ found you upon the castle's designated 'chillaxing' spot. _Lovely_ feature, by the way - how could you not have told me about it, Starlight? We should _definitely_ spend an afternoon there sometime soon!"

Starlight gave her usual titter, "Sounds like a plan, Trix." Despite the circumstances, Starlight could not help but feel the perpetual darkness which plagued her heart melt away with Trixie simply being herself. Absorbing the rest of her explanation, Starlight wracked her brain for a moment despite its ache. "And I suppose that makes sense - the castle's apex is the only place where I'd not be able to hear anypony, or risk running into them."

She didn't even want to think about how ugly that would have been - when she was angry, Starlight knew better than anypony that her ire knew no bounds.

Returning her gaze to Trixie, who was just concluding a self-aggrandizing smirk, "Well, I'm up now. My head's killing me, though. I'm just gonna pop over to the bathroom and grab something for it, then we can eat breakfast!"

"Wait, Starlight-!"

But she was firing up the spell before Trixie had started speaking, hoof arising to stop her, while Starlight only caught the terror in her friend's voice a beat before it exploded in her face.

Teal light erupted before her, then an unfathomable pain within her very horn, flash-crisped in fire, flashed her vision white, and a throat-tearing scream to bellow forth: "AUUUGH-HAGH-HAAAAGH!" Starlight howled, forehooves clamped upon her horn, rear pair hysterically kicking the covers off of her. They didn't stop until the burning in her forehead receded back into a dull ache, and she collapsed into bed a sweating, panting mess; thin finger of teal smoke waving above her peripherals.

"Ugh..." followed by a soft plop pulled Starlight's gaze to the left, where worry overrode the pain in her horn as she witnessed Trixie staggering to her hooves, an indentation shaped like her upon the wall.

"Oh my gosh," Starlight dove out of bed and galloped to her dizzy friend, "Trixie, I'm so, _so_ sorry! Are you, _egh_ , n'okay?" A pain pulsed within the base of her horn, like a marble a size too big was attempting to move through it.

The magician was upon her hooves as Starlight massaged this sore spot, too engrossed with the pain she felt to hear what was etched within her friend's murmuring of, "Starlight, you-...I mean, your... I, I'm not... _quite_ sure how to-"

Starlight groaned in dismay, the burning seeming to only intensify the more she rubbed at it. "What is-with this-stupid- _thing_!?" By then she was stroking the fur around her horn's base with both hooves, but finally cast a pained glance to Trixie so as to get an idea of how utterly ridiculous she herself looked.

Trixie was appalled - her lips hung open, and her eyes bugged out wide. Starlight's gut reaction was to interpret this as shock, but she'd seen such within Trixie many times before, and she never looked as if Starlight just swore off their friendship. "I... u-uh..." she practically mouthed.

"Was it really that bad?" She attempted to crack a smirk, but her head-ache rendered it a grimace.

Trixie merely answered brokenly, "Tr-... Starlight, I'm not sure I should tell you this, or leave you here, but, I... I don't... I don't know, _how_..." And then she averted her gaze, and assured they would stay such with a pained clench of the eyes.

 _What!? Since when was Trixie ever at a loss for words?_ Starlight bellowed once more, harsher this time as the pain, and her hooves, traversed the length of her horn. "Trixie! _Why_ , are you suddenly all tongue-tied and-" Starlight's heart plummeted to the depths of Tartarus as her hooves touched before even reaching halfway up her horn, "and, _and!_ " Her hooves patted frantically, as if the rest of it would conjure out of thin air - but that made even less sense than the fact that _HER HORN WAS_ GONE _._

Trixie knew - she somehow knew and didn't _TELL HER_! - as her eyes bugged out and she shakily, meekly cried out, "App- _Applejack_!?"

Starlight was only half-listening, stumbling, bumbling faster as she hobbled to her mirror on three hooves, the other upon her shortened horn.

"Applejack, _PLEASE_ she's about to-!"

"Trixie, the hay was that explosion!?" Applejack cried upon entering. Nopony answered, and by just glancing at Trixie's gaping expression and following it, did Applejack gasp and swiftly remove her hat, placing it above her heart. "Oh Starlight, Sugarcube, Ah-... Ah'm so, so sorry! Wuh-We didn' intend fer ya t' wake up so soon, an-an' oh... H'oh gosh, hon, Ah'mma might' sorry ya had t' find out like this."

Rainbow Dash appeared hovering above the farmpony. "Girls! Girls! I tried distracting Twilight, but we can- _not_ wait for Princess Celestia to get here before her! She says she'll head home as soon as she finishes this last ques-!" A hoof upon her foreleg silenced the pegasus, whose gaze dropped down and followed Applejack's stunned, sad gaze - mirroring Trixie's from the back, breaking on the inside.

The room flashed purple, pinging softly before materializing Twilight Sparkle with a cry of, "Starlight!" in between Trixie and her other two friends.

A beat of silence passed before any sense of jubilation was blanketed by the heavy, thick silence, filled briefly by Twilight whispering, "Oh..." a shaky breath was inhaled, "Oh, no..."

The four friends watched in silence, all with hooves across their chests, save for Rainbow, who used both to cover up her muzzle.

Surrounded by all of Starlight's friends, the fur-matted, pallid-pink pony within the mirror was an utter stranger to the mage gaping at what she saw upon her. Her mane had been twisted into a mess of tangles - knots, and split-ends alike, though her forelock remained intact - not adhering to its patterned teal-stripes; it was but a rope of purple and blue.

Yet Starlight was blind to the state of her appearance, despite her enormous, unblinking eyes - eyes frozen upon the jagged, pink stump protruding from her forehead.

It was a growth - it had to be. This ugly little thing couldn't possibly be what it obviously was, because, that's where her horn was, and by that logic her horn was gone! And, and...

"They took my horn." She remembered everything, then - the Witches were not a vaguely remembered half-dream, they were real; which meant that fable was real, their magic was real, Destiny was real, and Twilight was saved because she relinquished her most valuable possession.

Not her friendships, nor her life, but her horn - her magic. _Her own destiny._

Before Starlight could comprehend what that said about her character, she turned to Twilight Sparkle, a void in her heart which only deepened as she looked into those welling, compassionate eyes.

Starlight reckoned faintly, "They took my horn, Twilight," and wrenched away as her friends advanced upon her.

"They..."

Starlight's vision blurred - her eyes flash-flooded - the fur upon her cheeks cut through with warm, wet trenches in an instant.

Her voice was meek and broken, "Th-They took... m-my, _horn_..."

The former unicorn lost all power to stand, and she collapsed to her hindquarters with hooves across her chest, hugging herself to feel a warmth that would never touch her again: that special, magical connection she had with Equestria, now severed forever.

Starlight unleashed an anguished wail for all the heavens to hear; she found her hooves unmoving, stuck hugging her sides as she tried to move them upon her eyes. She did not care though, not enough to fight, nor to even outright sob, or conjure more tears than she had upon realization.

Starlight merely dropped her head, inhaling brokenly while only faintly registering the love of her friends trapping her in a group hug.

Starlight's face wrenched with the pain in place of her heart: a void, hollow and aching, she needed it filled, but nothing came forth. In a thought, she considered attempting a connection with Equestria once more - Starlight didn't know her last time using it would be the _last_ one - but the pain within her horn sharply made itself known.

Starlight Glimmer was cold.


	3. The Broken Body (Pt 2)

A note about Twilight/the timeline: _If you want to gauge where this story takes place, it diverges from canon after season 7, taking place about a year after its events. Considering how LITTLE time actually passes in the show, I felt that appropriate. Because as of right now, Twilight is a Princess of Friendship who is much more wiser and in-control of her sphere over Equestria. She's knowledgeable about it and, although still very "Twilight," the princess has a certain 'poise' about her that's a tad more mature than she has been since season 5/6._

 _I hope you all enjoy!_

* * *

Blue eyes popped open. Above her, a lavender canopy, clarified after three, squinching blinks.

Heart skipping a beat, Starlight Glimmer scowled with unease - she was not in her bed, for she never had a canopy; nor was she particularly fond of this particular shade of purple.

She shot up.

Her eyes danced about the large bedroom before her, quiet as it ever was, and darker than it's ever been. Except before comprehending this, Starlight knew in her heart where she was.

It was always miles ahead of her brain, really, for better or worse.

" _This is Twilight's room,_ " she murmured, her voice thundering against the gentle silence she loved about her princess's personal quarters.

And in that very instance, a pang sharp enough to make her voice lash out flared within her horn, inciting a prompt ache in her heart to follow alongside a vague, half-memory of her own reflection - that same gutting of the bosom renewed in force - and images of Twilight's broken expression melding with the nonexistent one of Hydia: hollowed, save for two enormous rats living in her skull. They wavered indecisively for dominance in tandem with Starlight's frantic panting, faster, and faster, until-

 _"_ T _i_ m _e_ t _o_ p _a_ y _u_ p _, m_ y _l_ i _t_ t _l_ e _p_ o _n_ y _!"_

Starlight, at least this time, had the wits to plant her face into one of Twilight's half-dozen pillows before shrilling bloody murder again.

It remained buried deep into the pillow, muffling Starlight's gasps for air and a need to steady her racing heart before Twilight heard. A force tugged on the front of her forehead; her spiky stump scratched gently against it.

 _The Witches... stole my horn..._

Even when trying to simply recall their last words, the ghostly caress of Hydia's massive claw prickled upon her throat: slimy, however odorless, squeezing her like a foal's toy. The Witch was gentle enough to allow air, but Starlight remembered her inability to scream as the terror was so great, it drove her into a panic. But what followed...

Starlight pulled the covers closer as shivers skittered down her forelegs, up her spine. An odd blessing, her inability to recall what followed.

 _They promised me it would be worth it,_ her inner thoughts spoke aloud, firm and proud as she bore holes into Twilight's canopy. _That I would lose everything that makes me,_ me, _for Twilight's survival._

Spikes drove into Starlight's belly and heart as she abruptly realized, _This... is gonna be the rest of my life._ The prospect made her guts plummet to the depths of Tartarus.

 _The rest of my life, hornless..._

 _Magic-less..._

"Fateless," she whispered to nopony in particular, save for the Witches if they were watching her now.

"This is worth it," Starlight announced. Her self-hug tightened, yet achieved little in warming her. _Besides!_ Starlight mused, distracting herself from the pain inside. _I've barely had to perform any_ real _magic since becoming Twilight's student._

Starlight considered though, and found herself torn over the prospect. She loved magic, and her ability, but never took pride in it until Twilight advised "one of the most powerful unicorns of our age" to embrace her strengths.

This, Starlight realized, must have been the Witches' plan: to strip Starlight Glimmer of her beloved strength, her agency - everything that made her the powerful, confident, self-aggrandizing pony who was willing to sacrifice it all to save her closest friend!

" _Ponyfeathers, this is_ obviously _worth it_!" Starlight hissed, frustrated over getting so emotional about it. She dares to have the gall, the sheer nerve, to regret this? Hey, she may no longer have her Destiny, but at least they let her live! It was a lot more than what Starlight anticipated before crossing paths with the masters of Flutter Valley.

 _Destiny demands that Twilight live, and me, and... I was the reason for that happening,_ Starlight reasoned. _So if, like, the Witches_ knew _all of this would happen, then that must be the path Fate has set for me! My story isn't over yet, which means...! Well..._

Starlight didn't really know what that meant; only that she still had a future, despite the catalyst of hers being ripped away from her forever...

Sorrow tried its way back in, but Starlight's heart turned to steel as she remembered the time Twilight Sparkle offered her a hoof in friendship - a chance, for a pony who didn't deserve it, who went on to save many lives, including her's.

 _So, if losing something as trivial as my magic ensures that Twilight has a chance to befriend somepony else, and make their life better?_ Starlight cracked a smirk; just the idea of arguing against her logic amused the former mage.

"This is worth it," she stated, stronger and more sincere than before.

And just like that, finally and immediately, the pain was forced aside and forgotten, her heart steeling for what she believed was the obvious truth. It left important things to mull over, such as what to say when she and Twilight finally met.

She wracked her brain for a convincing way of telling the truth; to assure Twilight that she had no reason to treat her student any differently than she does now.

Starlight, after all, didn't sacrifice her horn so that everything would stay that same - that is to say, _not normal_.

But before she could even formulate an idea of what to say to first say, Destiny already had plans for them: a sharp groan from across the room tore Starlight's heart out of her throat.

Of course it was by pure chance, then - or perhaps something a little more predetermined - that the door cracked open, cutting the bedroom in half with a sliver of warm, orange light, whose path was swiftly impeded by Princess Twilight Sparkle peering inside.

Starlight Glimmer stared across her belly, stunned, right through her.

A soft exclamation of, "Starlight," heralded a swifter, abruptly-ended groan: light, then darkness, filled the room once more.

The princess's hurried _click-clack_ 's grew rapidly near.

It all happened so fast, it only then occurred to Starlight Glimmer that to Twilight, she was just lying in bed instead of getting up to see her as soon as she awakened!

Starlight flailed out of bed with a cry of, "Twilight!", only to get tangled in the sheets and blankets, and plant her face upon the crystalline floor.

The pain took a moment to settle, delaying her groan just long enough to hear Twilight murmur, "Oh my gosh."

Starlight's ear stiffened, receiving the worry in her voice to the last, shaky lilt. She scrambled to her hooves until she stood tall, casual, and ignoring the blanket swallowing her hindquarters. A huff blew her curly little forelock aside before smiling a loose smile.

She was ready to open her mouth to speak, until she saw Princess Twilight Sparkle's healthy, loving face currently colored with pain.

The princess, mentor, and best friend Starlight Glimmer sacrificed her horn for, regarded her with enormous, pooling eyes - sadness, pain, heartbreak like she'd never seen before, in any pony she's ever met, swam in their lavender depths.

"I... I just don't know... wh-what to sa- _H'AY_!" Twilight yelped, gasped, and croaked all at once before being tackled by her student, wings flaring in surprise. Her forehooves planted themselves after nearly falling into an upright stance, though only for half a heartbeat: she squeezed Starlight Glimmer twice as fiercely.

Twilight quickly collapsed, carrying Starlight with her into a sitting position, whose hind legs crossed over her teacher's. Her fluffy bosom pushed up against Twilight's by sheer coincidence of their fall, but neither pony cared. Starlight gasped, and she breathed Twilight's aroma - sun and sky, magic and love.

It was sweet and _restored_ and alive...

Her own tears dampened this perfection with their salty tang, but Starlight cared little - she even giggled softly between bouts of soft weeping and gulps for air.

Her chest thumped wildly, a warm fuzziness residing in her bosom. Starlight could do little, conceive naught, but revel in the loving strength of Twilight's hug, and perk her ears to a whisper of, "Oh Starlight... my Starlight..." The dull ache in her chest swelled, but it was a hurt she would trade for nothing.

 _This is worth it,_ Starlight thought, _This is definitely worth it..._

After this extra-long, extra-tight hug, Starlight was the one to break away, pushing herself away from the princess.

Upon sensing this Twilight whipped away a little too fast. Like some frightened animal, she was on her hooves and scuttling back a couple feet, all while ogling the former unicorn seated in a puddle of lavender blankets.

"Is there something..." Twilight winced, then chose her words, "...you'd like to tell me?"

Starlight saw pity in her eyes, the weight of it forcing her gaze to the blanket. She gasped, realizing this was Twilight's, and her clumsiness had floored it. "Uh-huh'm, sorry Twilight!" the mare tittered, grabbing it in her teeth.

She didn't hear the princess mumble, "Starlight, it-... it's okay," as she proceeded to _capably_ clamber atop the bed, hind hooves clawing at the sheets but gradually elevating her to the top. She hissed amidst her straining, feeling the muscles in her neck tighten suddenly; it occurred to Starlight that this bed was just absurdly big, surely made for six ponies as the castle intended, and _Oh, Celestia, the castle stuffed this thing_ _with_ BOWLING BALLS.

"Starlight, please, _it's alright_ ," but Starlight was deaf to the entire world until lavender magic gently pulled the blanket out from her teeth, her own body feeling lighter as it was lifted - and for a spell of madness Starlight's heart shot to the heavens believing her magic somehow still worked - until she was spun around when she wanted to fly out the window and all across Ponyville. Reality ground her heart into her gut once again, but Starlight offered a sheepish smile to Twilight despite herself; she returned one that was sad and small, but genuine for her student.

All at once, Twilight's powerful magic made her bed, set Starlight Glimmer down on four hooves, piled logs from the pile beside her fireplace inside and ignited them in an instant.

Instantly the room was awash in a jittery, ruddy glow; the crystal floors, walls and ceiling a soft, luminescent orange beneath it. The two big, "comfy" chairs before the fireplace spun towards one another, where her eyes then flickered to Twilight's in question. A forced smile, bogged down with the darkness inside of her, shattered to pieces upon seeing a wince on her teacher's face.

With wilted ears she said, "I'm sorry, Starlight, about using my magic," then gesturing to the chairs, "but may we sit? Please?"

Smiles always came easily to Starlight when she had something to work for. "That's it Twilight, I'll never forgive you!" She tittered promptly to fill the ensuing silence. "A'hem, it's alright - really, I don't mind! After all, you wouldn't expect me to walk on eggshells for you if I was in _your_ position, would you?"

Two seconds ticked by before Twilight stammered, realizing this wasn't rhetorical: "O-Oh! Um, I mean, I suppose I wouldn't..."

Starlight winced from the burning in her cheeks. _You stupid pony! Twilight probably thinks you're a big, uncaring jerk!_ "N-Not that I _wouldn't_ , though!" she chuckled, rubbing the back of her head. "H'oof, that _sort of_ contradicts what I'm trying to say here, eh-heh-heh..." _STUPID, STUPID HOOF-IN-MOUTH!_ Starlight's face erupted into flame - that had to be it; some merciful force had to be saving her from this embarrassment-

A wing touched her chest. Starlight met Twilight's eyes: still sad, still hurting, but compassionate, and her smile met them one-hundred percent.

"Don't worry, I understand where you're getting at. To be honest, out of everything I've thought about since seeing you, this avenue just didn't ever occur to me! I'd forgotten how..." an audible gulp, and Twilight's eyes flooded with pain, prior to breathing, " _...h-how_ , ahem... how strong you are."

Starlight felt pride swell within as Princess Twilight wiped a wing across her eyes. She turned and gestured toward the chairs once more. "May we sit, please Starlight?"

Starlight hurriedly clip-clopped past. "Of course, Twilight."

Face turned away from the princess, Starlight allowed scarlet to seep into her complexion and reveled in the hellfire of her embarrassment. Her false cheer was definitely not convincing Twilight - especially since it failed their very first encounter.

Starlight leaped to the chair facing her more, prepared yet not enough for being swallowed by its plush cushions. Although not quite so extreme, Starlight felt as though she were but a belly and a face sticking out of this chair.

 _Still, though..._ Starlight hummed in delight as the softness enclosing her felt like a hug from Celestia herself.

"Comfortable?" Twilight asked from her own seat. She was turned slightly away from Starlight, toward the pile of crackling firewood as she was. Both their coats glossed in its warm glow, tinted a deep, toasty orange.

Starlight's head practically jittered. "Yep!"

It was almost a minute before anypony spoke again, though, Starlight awaited her teacher to begin - that would decide the direction of this conversation.

"I... I just don't know what to say," Twilight breathed, finally. Starlight's heart soared; this was actually better than she could have hoped for, as there was no argument to begin with!

"Luckily Twilight, you don't have to say anything."

There was a beat.

Two.

...Three.

"...S-Starlight-"

" _Please, Twilight_!" she snapped stiffly. Her eyes bore into the fire's harsh dance. "Whatever you're about to say... don't. Whether it's, 'I'm sorry for your loss,' or 'How are you feeling?' - whatever you feel like you have to say to me, _I assure you,_ it isn't necessary. This is _fine_." She gasped quietly for breath.

A beat of silence boomed thunderously between sentences.

"My goodness, Starlight..." her teacher breathed - Starlight needed only to glance to see the tears in Twilight's eyes. "Here..." She leaped down from her perch, sleek like a kitten, cooing, "Come here."

Frantically Starlight pushed herself deeper in her chair, regarding her with wild eyes - an overreaction, she flushed to realize, as Twilight froze upon hearing the first, "No, stop! _Stop_. I want you to _listen_ to me, Twilight." Her teacher said nothing. "Twilight... this? It's not a big deal." A hoof had pointed to her stump.

Twilight blinked. Twilight swallowed. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it without uttering a word. "Starlight, you lost your horn," she uttered robotically.

"I did."

"I heard you _scream_!" Tears flashed in Twilight's eyes, spiking Starlight in the heart. She winced underneath a firm stare; obviously, she was reacting too calmly for her teacher to be comfortable with - _Way to go, Glimmer_.

"You were just crying on my shoulder, and I thought that..." The words died upon Twilight's lips with a grievous sigh. "Oh, I'm sorry..." she breathed, "'m so... _sorry_ , it's just... how... in _Equestria_ are you taking this so well? I... I thought, that you w- _were_ , or rather, I guess I _assumed,_ which, I _am_ sorry about-"

"Twilight."

Welled, purple eyes met a kindly gaze from Starlight. "Look at me - look into my eyes and see how okay I am." Twilight did, holding it for ten seconds before burying into her foreleg with a frustrated sob.

"I'm sorry!" she muttered thickly, her eyes remaining planted. "'m sorry I can't... _st'hop, thinking about-!_ " A gasp, her eyes flashing wetly to her student's. " _About how-you can't! D'hoo aneebore-!_ "

"Twilight!" Starlight cried. As gracefully as her teacher, she leaped from her seat with the sleek grace of a feline that carried her into a hug. "I'm fine," she cooed, sighing shakily as Twilight locked trembling forelegs around her, snuffling into her neck. "I'm fine."

"Oh, Starlight... my poor, poor Starlight..." A lavender hoof groomed her mane with soothing strokes.

Twilight pulled away with a breathy chortle. "I... can't believe, you're taking this better than I am."

Her student chuckled. "You care too much Twilight. Didn't you just get done saying how strong I was?"

"Yes, but- _Starlight_ , you _love_ magic! It's your whole world, and you just... just... I don't even know _where_ to begin with that!"

"I know." Starlight lifted a hoof, smiling coolly to her teacher. "Honestly, considering everything that's happened to me, I'm surprised I'm not just _completely shattered_ and falling apart over here!" Starlight always had a problem with speaking before thinking, but it was too late to prevent her awkward titter once she started. "Um, it's just... I thought about it, like really, _really_ thought about it, and I realized that I'm alright with it!"

Starlight had to be fair with herself - it was impossible not to laugh at Twilight's roller coaster of a reaction towards her nonchalance about the horn: "Starlight! How-!? _Why_ are you al- _right_ , of all things, _with losing your horn_!?"

The ex-mage had her chuckle, but it died down immediately as it began, her teacher's words beginning to echo in her mind. Her eyes filled with an image of Twilight Sparkle, looking deeply concerned and positively angelic with her wings partly flared, and firelight hugging half her body, the other blanketed in shadow.

Only the crackle of their fire filled an ensuing silence.

 _"This is worth it."_ Blue eyes flickered to purple, hard but pleading for understanding. "That's why, Twilight. Giving up my horn is the price that I'm willing to pay to have this!"

"WAIT, WAIT! Woahwoahwoah!" Starlight clamped her muzzle shut, her heart racing as a spear drove through it, halting with excruciating finality once Twilight started incriminating her with an accusatory eye.

"Staaarlight...?" she said slowly.

"Creeepy?" Starlight drawled, trailing off into a nervous titter.

"Did you just say you..." her eyes attempted a search for meaning on the floor, asking, "gave _up_ your _horn_?" - her voice a bouncy jaunt up a flight of stairs. " _What_?" she sharply, stiffly snapped toward Starlight. "What? What? I, I'eye... I _thought_ , that-I mean, we all thought - according to Fluttershy - that you were... _attacked,_ by some big, terrifying monster? That your horn was..."

Twilight swallowed haltingly.

"... _stolen_?"

Starlight hissed in air, leaning away from her teacher with a hoof. "Yeeeah, _about_ that-"

"I mean," Twilight spoke right over her, walking off with eyes to the ceiling, "We've had _all three Princesses_ spend the last two days, tapping into Equestria's magic. Or something of that nature, I dunno. I'm not sure what they did, I... lacked my usual enthusiasm for the higher magics..." Twilight shook her head. "Oh... but for three days, they scanned Equestria for the lifeforce of..." a snarl of aggravation, "of _something_ , anything! I just wanted them to find whoever... whatever did this horrible, irreversible thing to my student, m-my _friend_ , my... _my_...!"

"Twilight?"

Blinking back into reality, Twilight swept a hoof across her moistened eyes, and turned immediately to the pony who owned a mysterious third title in her heart. Except, this pony was only half-listening to her friend's passionate ramble.

After being interrupted a third time, Starlight went into her own thoughts and absorbed what Twilight knew, to gauge the conversation from there.

For a moment, Starlight forgot what breathing was, as the full weight of what happened that fateful day hit her in full-force:

 _Fluttershy saw everything._ Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. _She saw me lifted up, she saw Hydia take my horn, when I can't even remember it._

But she remembered Fluttershy's screaming, then - clear as day; with a memory like her's, it obsessed on the horror in her cry, the sheer, unadulterated terror as the gentlest pony Starlight had ever known, was the unfortunate victim of not only Hydia's bodily horror, but her friend's maiming.

Starlight's heart raced so hard it ached. Her voice was dry as it was frail: "...Is... how, is Fluttershy?"

Twilight's eyes analyzed her curiously, the intense topic change flustering her before she brightened with understanding. Her eyes welled an instant later. Soundlessly, she turned her cheek as a stream flowed down either one.

Starlight's chest thrummed as the alicorn shakily sucked in a breath of air.

* * *

 _"Sh-She's..._ probably _at her cottage, same place she's been since it happened..."_

A loud, pained cry resounded across the valley, scaring away clouds of its owner's many bird friends.

It was, as always, just a single, bellowing wail.

But after the initial heart attack, it was a constant barrage upon it by way of soft, fragile weeping into the shoulder. "Fluttershy, sweetness!" Rarity cooed, hugging her friend tight. Tears sprung to Rarity's eyes, but not to her field of caring, considering she's been supporting the look for days in a simple, solemn black dress and cocktail hat to match. Her veil, fashionably hiding her behind a darkened screen on the streets, had been flipped rested overtop her mane.

 _"'m sorry, 'm sorry, eh-heh'vrypony..."_

Rarity stiffened her lip, readjusting her hug so as to make it more snug. "You have _nothing_ to apologize for."

"But I'm just so _helpless_!" Fluttershy gasped for words. " _I'hit's,_ my fault, _that St'har-light, lost her, horn!_ "

"You shouldn't think that way of Starlight!" a sharp voice gently cried against the stillness of her cottage. "She's your friend, and super smart besides! She'd know better than to blame you for what happened..."

Rarity looked down from Fluttershy's shoulder, meeting the pitying gaze of Pinkie Pie inches away. Alongside the friendliest pony in Ponyville, she's tried for days to help Fluttershy. Currently, Pinkie was squeezing the sadness right out of her friend in a rear-embrace, hugging her as snug, fierce, and loverriffic as she possibly could, topping it off with a "sad" smile - not in the sense that she was smiling in spite of sadness, but Pinkie was smiling to hide her own.

Being more aware of her friend's feelings than she used to be, Pinkie knew that now wasn't the time for fun and games. Fluttershy needed comfort and support, and by gum, Pinkamena Diane Pie was going to "friendship" the sadness right out of her!

She smiled assuredly to Rarity, despite the pain within it. The unicorn's returning stare burned with emotion, conveying it still hurt to hear Fluttershy not even respond to her friends' constant assurances.

A hardness in Pinkie's gaze manifested before sealing itself behind a clenched set of eyelids. "She would not ever, never for- _ever_ blame you, Fluttershy." She squeezed with every word. "You're her _friend_! And I betcha Starlight would wanna just _hug_ the sadness, right outta you! Because, she would be so _heartbroken_ to see you like this!" Pinkie Pie hugged her friend even harder, nuzzling her face right beside her own.

All the while, Rarity had been supporting the full weight of two friends whom she loved very much - her heart melted twice in the last ten seconds: once from Fluttershy's weeping, and then just now, hearing Pinkie Pie's heartfelt plea to get her friend to understand. Her love for them maintained her strength, and her perfected poise masked her groaning, grunting self from erupting into light.

A beat of silence followed Pinkie Pie's words. It almost wasn't disturbed at all by the gentle, shaky sigh Fluttershy emitted, its meaning conveyed by the relief which sagged her into Rarity's forelegs.

They were prepared to mimic her before a soft, broken, "Still," peeped out - Rarity hoped to Celestia that pony didn't feel her muscles go rigid.

Instead, Rarity sensed the muscles of her friend's soft, shivering figure tense as she said, "I... _I_... thought, that I was getting better." Rarity felt the warm chill of rain on her shoulder. "I thought, that I wasn't the pony I used to be... that I was strong, but... I wasn't. I... I should have done something! _S'homething_!" Fluttershy snarled. "Instead of just _nothing_! Standing there, scared and _petrified_ like a... like... _l'hike I alw'hays am_!"

"No! No, Fluttershy!" Rarity wept alongside her aching heart, reaffirming a newly-strengthened, twice-as-fierce caress for her crying friend.

* * *

Starlight pressed a hoof to her aching breast. " _That's_ how she _feels_!?" she cried, face remaining agape and aghast. Twilight's morose nod freshened her pain. "Oh Celestia, I... I need to see her! I need to tell Fluttershy I'm okay!"

 _"STARLIGHT, WAIT!"_ , but the crackling, teal energy from within Starlight's horn flickered to cold midway through Twilight's cry.

Her voice rang slightly within the tiny cavern the castle made into her bedroom, overcome immediately by Starlight Glimmer's exhausted, fragmented panting.

"F-Forgot," she stammered into her lap - head held in both hooves. After the pulsing quickly receded, Starlight lifted her miserable face and regarded Twilight's.

Her teacher gave a quiet sigh, but despite her assurance of, "I'm alright," Twilight's sad smile melted her heart anew.

"I know _you_ are," she said, gently; Starlight smiled wanly. "I _also_ know, just how much Fluttershy would love to see you up and about." Twilight's kindly exterior crumbled into shock, her mouth agape with apology. "N-Not that, what I _mean_ is, I'd hate to put some kind of a pressure on you! But I am hoping that if she were to see you, talking as _we have_ will _also..._ ease, some of her concerns."

Twilight's smile was an inch too wide, and her word choice a tad more peculiar than usual, but Starlight Glimmer always was deaf and blind to such things that didn't suit her perfect narrative.

So she merely agreed with the idea, nodding instead of wondering. "I can." Even more vigorously. "I will! I'll go to her cottage as soon as I'm able."

A wing upon her breast, and a breeze-soft chuckle from Twilight, cooled the desire in her heart before her brain had a chance to catch up.

"You're a great friend, Starlight. But, tomorrow - and we'll go together. UP! No compromises. This is final." Starlight clamped her mouth shut - only a princess could go from a relaxed, approachable pony to one who was, largely the same, but could conjure an air of authority that didn't intimidate.

"Fine," she sighed, making sure Twilight knew how much she begrudged this - from the corner of her eye, her teacher offered a knowing smirk. Turning back to her, Starlight asked, "So...!"

Whatever chipper mood she just mustered up evaporated, realizing what was about to leave her lips. Starlight considered against it, afraid, but decided it was finally time to bat away the fog of the last two days.

"...what exactly happened, the day you found me?"

Twilight regarded her student, neck straightening a beat after processing her question.

Even half in shadow, Starlight didn't need to see all of Twilight for her to suddenly metamorphosis before her eyes, not into something else entirely, but frighteningly close to it.

First, the princess sighed; and as she sighed, her entire, regal posture sagged, slinking into a poise bringing her to everypony else's level, except even lower, for her chin nearly kissed the alicorn-shaped shadow splashed across the crystalline floor. Twilight's wilted ears upturned gradually, as did her smile, when she returned to meeting her student's worried gaze.

But Starlight found that she rose no higher...

"I'm sorry," lamented the princess, "it's been a rough couple days. But I know with you, I don't have to worry anyponyby allowing my exhaustion to..."

...nor did her smile meet her eyes, or the energy she _believed_ Twilight had just moments prior. The student impressed a series of second guesses on herself:

Quickly, thoughts of _Did I just not see the bags in her eyes? The fur on her face is so matted, her wings' feathers too!_ turned into, _How long has it even BEEN since Twilight's had a good night's sleep?_ _How could I have not noticed before!? She looks terrible!_

An ache formed in Starlight's bosom that she couldn't ignore, clenching in agreement, painfully, as realization hit her: _I... I didn't mean for so many of my friends to suffer because of this..._

Starlight resurfaced from her thoughts, bringing the world into audible clarity to her teacher droning on towards the fire - still fatigued, still...

 _Had her voice REALLY sounded so sleepy, this entire time?_

...fragile.

"...and then, poor Rarity and Pinkie Pie came bursting in not long after you fell unconscious again, just all ragged and their eyes _completely_ bloodshot." Twilight suddenly smirked at Starlight, who instinctively smiled, albeit thinly, to match her's, despite not knowing what she was talking about, "With just a glance, I could tell the story in their eyes - the horror they've seen..." she glanced at Starlight's stump, "the heartbreak. They took one look, saw that I was there, and..."

Twilight trailed off, her eyes finding the fire. Her brows regarded it with concern.

"...And they thought... that I was going to start _yelling_ at them. Or something of that nature! Something to justify that pile of tissues they saw before me."

"I... probably would have. Or not." A sigh, tired, weighed heavily on the princess. Starlight felt small realizing how long it's been since Twilight has had a good night's rest - and then she felt even worse, realizing she was to blame for all this strife. "To be honest, I don't really know what I would have done. Part of me was still _furious_ at my friends for keeping this from me! But a glance at Celestia, reminded me, of what _really_ mattered..."

"What was that?"

Twilight smiled before her face swiveled toward Starlight's, becoming half-masked in shadow. She saw the compassion in her eye as Twilight answered in a softer, more regal tone, "'They love you, Princess.'"

Starlight's lips could only part slightly. A proper reaction wasn't even conceivable; how _was she_ supposed to react to that?

Her mentor, blessedly, did the work for her, all with a quirky little blush. "She arrived just as you were beginning to sleep. Funny! How Celestia and I saw each other twice in a day, feeling... either extreme of the emotional spectrum." Twilight didn't force a chuckle. "I was just _appalled_ that everypony seemed to know about this before I did! But Celestia... she put her wing on me, leaned her head next to mine, looking to Applejack and Rainbow Dash as she said those words - 'Don't begrudge their actions, Princess,'" Twilight quoted, hoof in air, "'they acted accordingly because they love you - they were scared for you. Don't you _understand_?'"

Starlight understood, except she swallowed hard and allowed her friend to conclude the obvious:

"It took me no longer than a second, when really, I should have just known from the start, but..." Twilight's smile faltered, shame and a sigh lowering her head further.

"You aren't perfect, Twilight." Starlight wrapped a foreleg around her. "Nopony expects you to be, especially, well, considering..." She gestured a hoof and a wry smile toward her maiming, to which Twilight attempted a feeble grin in return.

"Right," she murmured. "I mean, I know my friends will never begrudge me for my behavior; they possess the empathy to understand. I... I consider myself very lucky, to have such great friends. _But still_ ," suddenly, Twilight's passion and distance from Starlight doubled with a turn to the fireplace, away from her, "I always, _always_ seem to lack this _obvious foresight_ , when I'm the Princess of Friendship! But when we shared a glance, I smiled and forgot _all_ that, because there, in that moment, I understood that sometimes the ponies we love will do things that hurt us."

Twilight paced closer toward the fire, her face gazing into the dark ceiling as she spoke. "Things that we may not fully comprehend at first, but come down the line, with a little bit of heart, we could garner a greater understanding of why we do what we do, and become closer friends than ever before! I... I suppose that's the one, _good_ thing to come of all this horror..." Twilight murmured, her wings refolding sluggishly. "But it's best we see it from _their_ perspective, because that's what leads to this understanding in the first place."

"All of this, ran through here," a hoof fell over her heart, "as I looked to Pinkie Pie and Rarity... as I did a double-take, seeing them for the first time, what lay in their gaze... as they blurted out apologies and explanations and more tears as the events from earlier were relived, I _knew_ all of this already. I didn't hear what they'd said or particularly care, because I knew what they had to offer me and I didn't need it. I just ran over to them, and together, we..."

A sparkle fell from Twilight's eye, plopping quietly upon her crystalline floor. "Well!" The princess shook her head while returning to face Starlight Glimmer, her gaze a culmination of many things: love, pain, fear, all cloaked in a veil of exhaustion. "That's the long and short of it."

The student regarded her friend with wide, nigh-unblinking eyes and a swallow - only implied by her pulsing throat. Her mind whirled still with questions: _How long was I initially out? How much do you know about the 'monster,' and how close are you to finding them? What happened with Trixie? How are our other friends? Is anypony here right now? Are you mad at me? Do you even KNOW why you should be mad at me? Are you still sick, even a little bit?_

The last one, Starlight felt burned her most of all. And she braved the prospect of hurting Twilight further by making her relive more terrible memories of that day. "And... how are you feeling? Health-wise, I mean."

The princess huffed. "Like a newborn filly, though, that's the least of my concerns."

Starlight sucked in air, except in her heart, Twilight might as well have slapped her. "... _I gave up my horn for you,_ " she uttered in a cold, dead voice.

Now Twilight looked as if somepony had struck her cheek; an abrupt pang shot across Starlight's heart, as if she'd actually done it.

For several beats neither pony said a word - although Starlight attempted valiantly, she could only conjure "I"s and voice cracks until Twilight Sparkle murmured in a high, faint voice: "You've said that before."

"I..." Starlight wracked her brain, searching, but... "I guess I did. _Yes_ , I... I did, Twilight." Her voice was as firm as her posture, emphasizing how easy a decision this was.

A beat later, it occurred to her that Twilight wasn't looking at her - analyzing the ground in front of her hooves, instead, with enormous, unblinking eyes.

Starlight felt a twinge of annoyance surface, until-

"Spike," Twilight breathed, swallowing, "he... tried to tell me, these past two days what happened. I mean..." She almost gagged the word out, it was utterly preposterous to her, "...witches. Like actual, gathered-'round-the-cauldron, _witches_. I told him... to stop, _reading_ , those silly comic books, before I... _just_ , I kept cutting him off! Every time he tried to broach the subject. I just... I didn't wanna hear any nonsense. I pushed Spike away, deciding to _once again_ not _trust_ a friend, when I could have had all the answers I needed the day it'd happened."

"Twilight-"

Seemingly, the sound of her name snapped her out of it, and towards the mare. "And then there's... you, Starlight." She was monotone, still lost in memory.

The former mage's mouth hung opened, venturing to close three times but failing every one.

"I didn't believe him - I didn't think I wanted to believe him - but... now that you're telling me, you... you've dabbled!?" Twilight suddenly _screeched_. "I-h'In _dark magic_?!" She wheezed, as if it were the funniest joke she ever heard.

Starlight's heart hammered bruises on her ribcage, her mind a flurry of explanations and excuses unable to formulate properly with Twilight _reacting_ like this.

She could only watch with quick, quiet breaths as Twilight finally managed to put it together. "You... gave up _your horn_ , in order to- t- _to_ -..." her eyes glistened in the firelight, "...you... _m-me_..." and then they welled.

Both hooves stuck out before her, frantic. "Hey, woah, Twilight! Let me explain!" Twilight closed her mouth alongside a slow, sad blink.

Starlight, meanwhile, didn't stop for breath. "Because, you've got it all wrong! I... would never, _never_ ever, ever, _EVER_ dabble in dark magic! I mean _come on_ , you know _me_! I'm _way_ more responsible than that! Especially considering how uh, eh-heh, passionate I can be, right? I'd be a juicy power amp of dark magic if I ever tapped into it!" She tittered hysterically... _hysterically_... and Twilight cracked a feeble smile that didn't last, but it was good enough for Starlight.

"You see, they..." she wet her lips, she hummed; Starlight realized there was no way to really broach this topic without sounding utterly insane. "They were these ladies from a storybook, and I... well, took a chance and wanted to meet with them... see if I could make a wish, or a deal or some kind to save you."

"Turns out... they were real! And... that's, basically it!"

Starlight flushed at the absurdity of it all.

 _No wonder Spike thought I was crazy._ She gazed off to the side.

Twilight had regarded Starlight's entire story with an owlish stare. Processing it achieved little more than an, "Oh..."

A beat, and then, "So... you were... you met _witches_ from a storybook?" She clip-clopped forth on "witches." "Which one? _Wait_ ," she gasped, then lurching forth until she was snout-to-snout with a bug-eyed Starlight, "You don't mean to tell me, that _The Witches of Flutter Valley_ is a true story, do you!?"

Her eyes were huge and sparkly and in Starlight's face.

They were so happy. But they died anyway once her student turned away, face clenched with pain. _Why can't Twilight just be happy, for one minute?_

"Hey, what's wrong?" She leaned close. _Gosh, Twilight, do you always have to sound so concerned?_

"It's nothing." That was true, although her grin wasn't. "But... they were just _horrible_ , Twilight! They weren't anything _like_ they were in the story! They were all big, a-and disfigured, they- _they were Humans_! They were Humans, Twilight! Not ponies! And not Humans like in Sunset's world, but a kind that's _way,_ way uglier! They had these scary, _evil_ voices, and they said some things and I just feel scared all the time now, always thinking about how they _actually exist_ and it's just... _URGH_!"

Starlight, her face having lowered close to the ground, shook in shame a moment later after reflecting upon what just spewed out of her mouth. "Ugh, I'm sorry for venting! It's just," a chill raked through her once again, " _h'oof!_ I don't think I've ever been more scared in my life! Yeah, even more than the time you were all kidnapped by Changeli-! Uh, Twilight? You okay?"

Her teacher was just staring, straight into Starlight with a fairly unsettling gaze - hollow, and staring out toward a horizon that wasn't there. Starlight felt her core freeze over.

"...I'm," Twilight blinked, finally returning to reality, "sorry, Starlight. It's just... I can't get over how the obvious was in my face this entire time! How much sense it all would have made, if I just bothered to listen to Spike!" Her spiteful hoof-stomp rang in the bedroom's silence.

Twilight spoke up just as Starlight's lips parted, her voice no longer ringing in the darkness, "I didn't even know you were suffering! I was bouncing around Ponyville, gaily like a little filly!" She spoke even softer, "I didn't even question where you were, I just... _assumed_ I'd see you later," then it was but a murmur, "...and took off for Canterlot."

Starlight pitied her friend. She was just a pony that had far too much happen to her these last couple weeks - both physically and mentally. _To emerge from all of that suddenly, miraculously unscathed, only to enter a new kind of Tartarus, well..._

Despite the pain in her heart, Starlight made peace with, _At least Twilight's still alive._ She had no right to feel bad on account of her student's own choices.

"Twilight-"

"And when I get home," she droned over her, "I see you... your horn broken..."

"Twilight!"

"And I spend the next two days, only seeing your horn _broken_! ...Every time I close my eyes," she demonstrated, "I see your shattered face as the two of us realize what's happened to your horn!" Her drawn eyes clenched tight. "Even when I'm not watching you, I see it still, I hear your scream, always - as I pour over the Cutie Map between Celestia and Cadance, searching it for just a _trace_ of this monster, that Rarity said, that _Fluttershy_ said, _took your_ horn!" Tears flashed wetly in Twilight's eyes as they sprung open, the pain of her voice inciting Starlight's to prickle.

"And you're telling me you gave it up, in... in order to _heal_ me?" Twilight almost sounded pained at the notion, and Starlight couldn't ascertain why, nor did she have time to. "I... I don't even know how to feel about that! And when I try to even comprehend what that means, all I can hear is that scream you made, Starlight!"

Twilight sobbed twice, tears rolling down and around her face, before breaking off underneath her chin. Starlight knew exactly what her friend felt when she whispered, " _That sound just broke my heart, Starlight_..." Her head rocked slow, from one side to the other. "It's all I heard, whenever Spike tried telling me the truth - the truth I thought was just another one of his _crazy theories_... Brushing him aside, telling him to just _STOP reading comic books_ when, _really_ , he knew the answer this whole time, and I was just too- TOO-!"

"TWILIGHT!" Starlight yelled, and Twilight snapped out of her reverie with a startled gasp.

The hate and spite in the princess's tone, directed toward herself, was a feeling Starlight related too all too well - and she would be doomed to Tartarus if she let Twilight feel that way.

"Look at me, look at how fine I am! See? Look! I'm fine, _I'm happy_. You don't gotta feel bad for me!"

Twilight Sparkle gazed forlornly down her muzzle, at Starlight. Her big, sad eyes closed as their foreheads tapped - although a sensation she enjoyed like always, Starlight missed the rough grind of their horns rubbing up against each other. "I'm sorry," whispered the princess. "I just can't get over the fact that... you, gave up your _horn_ \- _your horn_ , Starlight - for me... Especially when I've spent days obsessing over, well, _you_."

She pulled away, her eyes pleading to make sense of it all. "Starlight, your reaction was so _raw_ , like you just realized this happened! How'm I supposed to believe you're really okay with it? That you aren't just putting up a front on my behalf?" Twilight's frown deepened. "What kind of a friend would I be if I didn't worry about you?"

Starlight smacked her lips together. "Well! _Here's the thing,_ uh, I... _did_ , kind of... just realized, _it_... _happened_..." She looked away, pinker in her cheeks, and refusing to see her friend's expression as she explained. "T-To be honest, I didn't even know what the Witches wanted from me. But I told them I'd give up anything, _anything_ to save you. At first, I thought they'd want my life, but when they denied that, I... couldn't really think about what it was they wanted from me. The trade for your health was, 'that which is most precious to me.' And... I suppose, in the end, my precious thing is... my magic."

Twilight brought a hoof to her gasping lips. "Starlight... Oh, Starlight..."

She swallowed to the trembling, heartbroken utterances of her name - that's what made it hard to swallow all of a sudden, it had to be. Straightening herself, Starlight looked over only to realize that now Twilight was the one with her eyes to the floor. She searched, contemplating behind a hoof on her muzzle.

Starlight stomach backflipped, contemplating the conflicting feelings likely raging inside of Twilight's head.

With but a loving smile she approached, and hooked her forelegs around her teacher's neck. "You're worth it all," she murmured. Twilight blubbered a single sob behind her ear. Starlight squeezed tighter. "This is what friends do for each other. Think of it as like giving up a kidney! Except, you know, _we both get to live to a ripe old age_ , eh-heh!"

Twilight pulled away, blinking - Starlight thought it was just to keep them from popping out, they were so wide. The prolonged silence made her wince. "Am I trying too hard?"

Twilight shook her head, "No," leaning forth to nuzzle warmly against her student's neck. Starlight grinned goofily at the sensation, the affection warming her heart. "Starlight, my... faithful student." A cute giggle sounded as her heart throbbed to the title, when Twilight's face was suddenly in front of her's. "I've always wanted to say that! Ooh... Starlight," said pony was swiftly in the loving embrace of the Princess of Friendship, "you're an amazing friend, to make such a decision in order to save me. I suppose I'm in your debt, except that-"

"Except that wouldn't be in the spirit of friendship," Starlight finished for her.

"I've taught you well." Twilight's smugness made Starlight giggle.

She finished with a long, relaxed sigh. "I'll be honest, Twilight: this entire conversation? For the most part, it's been _exactly_ what I needed after these last couple weeks. Despite the subject matter, being able to just talk to you about things is, well, it's _normal_. _That's_ what I've been missing! And I _know_ things'll be different now because of my horn, but... how we act, and treat each other? I don't want our dynamic to be different now because of this."

Starlight concluded with drawn eyes and a hoof upon her heart. She was startled out of her deep reverie with a familiar, feathery touch brushing her chest, and the hoof beside it. "I understand, Starlight. I'll do my very best to make you feel comfortable - I promise."

Twilight smiled wryly. "However, I can't make any promises for myself, though! Because it'll still take _me_ some time to get used to this. But still, I am so, _so_ proud of your reaction to this development, Starlight - both as a mentor, and your friend."

Starlight battered her away, hoping the fire-glow concealed her flushed, pink cheeks. "Oh, stop! I just did what _any-pony_ would do..." Before Twilight could have the chance to insist, "So! Uh," an idea suddenly came to mind, something she was genuinely curious about - "while we're on the subject of _things_ going back to normal, how's everypony been reacting to your miraculous recovery?"

Twilight opened her mouth, amusement sparkling in her eyes as it clamped shut again. Starlight huffed a laugh, just because of her speechlessness. "Wet," she decided.

"Wet?"

Twilight nodded. "Very wet. Lots of tears from many ponies I've come to know over the years." Her smile was humble, but her tone burst with an acute awareness of the love Equestria felt for her.

 _Of course this is worth it._ Starlight grinned. "Well, it's a good thing Equestria hasn't flooded yet! Considering how many friends you've made," she remarked.

"I have, I really have. Oh, Starlight! Everypony just couldn't be happier! And it's all thanks to you." Starlight didn't think she could blush any harder. "None were more joyous than our friends, though."

"Of course." Fluttershy, heartbroken, invaded Starlight's thoughts. "That is until Hydia chose the _perfect_ time to receive her payment."

Her teacher's smile thinned. "Yes, well..." eyes flickered downwards, "they're the only ones who know the truth, Starlight. We haven't told a pony what's happened here outside of the princesses and your friends." Starlight's heart skipped a beat. "Speaking of which, there's the matter of what I am going to tell everypony in the coming days, and how much you want them to know, and... well, we'll discuss this tomorrow over breakfast."

Starlight already wished to let all of Equestria know what she did and how - purely because of Hydia's promising of that inevitability.

"But nopony's really been asking how I got better!" Twilight offered brightly. "They're just so happy to see I'm okay, that even three days later I'm getting invitations to parties from every corner of Equestria - from mount Eris to Griffonstone. Even better, my friends and I are all invited!"

It's obvious what the elbow-bump to her barrel was meant to imply.

Although she loved a good party, Starlight had no desire to go to one. Her heart just didn't feel it; she believed it was prospect of being seen right now. Not when she hadn't even lived a day without her horn yet. "Yeah'um... I'm _good_ , on the party scene for now. I think I just wanna spend the next day or two learning to live with this thing," she gestured to her stump.

"Yes. We'll... talk about this over breakfast too," Twilight said, hoof to her side. "But just so you know, I wasn't expecting you to attend a party _now_ , Starlight."

Starlight cocked her head. "Out of curiosity, why can't we discuss these things now?"

Twilight dropped her head, giving a disappointed sigh. "Oh, I'd hate to leave you, Starlight - especially after you've just woken up!" She nuzzled their cheeks together. Starlight pushed away, blushing, with a caw of, " _Twilight_!"

"Right, right, I'm sorry," amended her friend, flushing herself. "You don't want me to be fussing over you, I get it. But it just doesn't feel _right_ having to go to this townwide speech now... I know the ponies of Ponyville wanted me to make an official statement, but I may have to cancel it. My heart's just not in it right no-"

"What?" cried Starlight. "No, Twilight! Don't go disappointing everypony on my behalf." She merely looked away, guiltily. "They wanna see you, right? And I bet, that you wanna see them." Twilight quietly nodded in agreement.

Starlight's stern-soft tone was rendered even gentler. "When's the last time you even left this castle?"

She cracked a smirk at the alicorn's cheeky smile. "Um... _right before I first saw you_."

Starlight gave her a pointed, faux-disappointed gaze. "Twilight... you made what I can _only_ assume was a promise to the ponies of Ponyville - a promise, once an official statement, now to actually see them!" She touched her hoof to Twilight's shoulder. "I think you should go do that. I can take care of myself, I promise."

Twilight bit her lip, wilting her ears with a glance to the side before reuniting with Starlight's stare. "Are you sure?"

"Twilight!" she moaned.

"Okay! Okay," the princess laughed. "I know I can be a little overwhelming as a mentor. But it's because I care, not only as the Princess of Friendship, but also family."

Her words swelled Starlight's heart until it ached. Although she didn't deserve her appraisals, Starlight thought to herself, _Don't you see what I see, Twilight? Why you're worth this sacrifice?_ She wished to ask Twilight this, but she stayed her hoof and merely smiled to the princess.

She mirrored Starlight's expression, igniting her magic as it gripped the doorknob. "Well... I guess I should go now, then." She still didn't sound excited.

"Aw, already?" In truth, she wanted Twilight to stay, too; Starlight hoped they could talk a little more - about what she didn't quite know.

"Well, _yeah_ \- I'm late enough as it is!" Purple wings fluffed against her sides, a hoof pressed upon her chest. "When I came in here, I was just getting ready to leave. I was supposed to arrive fifteen minutes before it actually started! But I became so _concentrated_ on preparing myself to see you again," ("Oh, Twilight...") the Princess swallowed hard, "I... truly, wasn't prepared to be alone with you, awake and... _moving_ ," she almost gagged the word, the memory still haunting her. She shook her head and eliminated her briefly-lived thousand-yard-stare. "I'd forgotten _everything_ amidst the 'emotion commotion,' just succumbing _entirely_ to my feelings. I'm... sorry, for crying like that by the way."

"Twilight, stop beating yourself up!" Starlight moaned. She latched a foreleg around her teacher's withers, and rubbed a cheek against her's, "I... was _touched_ ," she decided, though still wholly uncertain, "that you cared so deeply about me."

She was suddenly, magically yanked toward facing the Princess of Friendship's perturbed disposition.

Twilight softly cried, "Starlight, of course I do!" and even softer, "I love you."

She would have smiled broad in response, feeling that familiar tingle she's felt since hugging Twilight a conversation ago, until those three words were said. Starlight's heart writhed with feelings indescribable; that which she couldn't even decide if they were good or bad. By that measure, her brain didn't even begin to embark upon dissecting this feeling.

The entire room spun. Starlight could only swallow and stare. "O-Oh," she managed.

Twilight muffled a laugh with her foreleg, her blush concealed in the glow of fire. "Well, take it easy, Starlight. And I mean it! Spike is here too, in case you get lonely; aaand _Trixie_ isn't far! He'd be more than happy to run to her wagon for you. She's come by every day to see you, you know."

 _I can walk to her myself._ Starlight rolled her eyes though, knowing Twilight meant well. "Yeah, yeah! And is there baked ziti in the oven, too, Mom?"

That got Twilight cackling. "Alright, I'll stop! You got this..." she sighed. When she was at the door, Twilight turned around to her student, still standing beside the blaze in her fireplace, watching her leave with a plastered-on smile.

She offered a sad one of her own. "Be seeing you, okay? Stay strong."

Starlight bobbed her head, up and down. "Yeah, yeah - see ya, Twilight! Have fun!" She waved.

With a lingering glance she pondered over how pitying it still was, the Princess of Friendship magically pulled her door open, and lurched backwards a step as a little, purple dragon fell forward. She efficiently caught him in a magenta cloud of magic just inches from flopping upon the ground.

"Spike!" Twilight admonished, though not angrily.

She hovered him a foot above her head.

Impressively, Spike had an excuse at the ready: "I'm sorry, I...!" His entire body sagged in defeat. "Okay, yeah, I was listening. But I got really worried! I passed by and heard you wailing, Twilight! I thought something terrible happened until you started talking to Starlight and... I heard her talk back. I... I had to hear, I'm sorry! I've just been _so worried_ about you! Both of you!" he cried while regarding his broken friend.

"Aw!" Twilight cooed.

"You should have joined us." Starlight trotted up beside her teacher, following the drake's descent back to the ground. Her mind was awhirl of their debates prior to her departure - she wondered how he felt now, realizing how right she was.

"Not for nothin', Starlight," Spike began, scuffing his hind paw, "but this seemed... a little-kindaaa... _personal_." He glanced to the side with twiddling claws, reflecting.

Starlight was so engaged with Spike, she failed to notice the looming glee upon her teacher's expression, as her eyes danced between her two castlemates.  
"Spike, your timing is as impeccable as always!" his caretaker cheerfully announced.

"Huh? Wha- _OH'F_!"

Twilight squished him and the broken pony together with her magic. "Now you two have as much time as you need to catch up!" ( _"I'm sorry, but, 'catch u-?'"_ ) "To hang out, _talk_ , be with each other and _not_ _apart_! Ah-heh-heh-heh, _right, Spike_?!" Her grin was manic, but genuine. Starlight found it an interesting sight, never having seen something quite like it, especially from her... normally put-together teacher.

"U-Uh, sure thing, Twilight!" Starlight pulled her head back so she could stare straight down the length of her throat. Spike was buried in her pink fluff.

"But, didn't you need me to come with you to thi-MMF!" Spike's mouth snapped down on whatever it was about to say.

"I'll see you both later! Don't stay up too late now, alright? Have a good evening! _Byeee!_ " And then Twilight was gone, smoke and white spots in Starlight's vision to remember her by.

"Well that was just _fast_." She huffed in amusement. "Did you see the smile on Twilight's muzzle? It was like somepony just poured ice-water on her back! ...Uh, what's with the look?"

She would have labeled it a 'glare,' but there was that same, pitying glint Twilight had, now in Spike. Was it some kind of phenomena?

The dragon had his arms folded as he stood a foot away, gazing up at his friend with an uneasy, worrying look. "Starlight," he asked, sincerely, "do you have problems?"

Well, THAT was a slap in the face! Starlight quickly decided between answering him with snark - sniping him back as they've always done - or appealing to what he was clearly implying with her casual lightheartedness.

"Um... narrow it down, please?" She blushed.

Whether it was a joke or a light heart, Spike merely regarded her with a single, sad bat of the eyes before responding. "You... really missed how Twilight was acting back there?"

 _What, weird? Twilight's always has her 'moments.'_ To Starlight's speechlessness, her mouth hanging open before closing again, he explained with a sad sigh, "Starlight... I'm asking, if you just purposely miss the point sometimes because it's _easier_ on you, or you really don't understand certain, glaring social cues." His words punched Starlight in the heart, because he was right, and she didn't know why.

"Or," he sighed, "maybe it's just because I know Twilight better than anypony."

Everything about this shift in discussion ground against Starlight's guts. She trotted forth and sat before the drake, hind legs splayed before her with a forehoof upon his tallest spine. "Why don't you explain what you mean? Please. I want to understand."

Spike did not sit with her, like she hoped - he stood a foot away. She wondered what that meant...

The drake spoke and grabbed her attention before she fully could. "Starlight," he began, claws folded upon his belly, "I... _I_ don't know what to _say_ ," the unicorn's ears perked realizing they were getting _this_ out of the way now, "I mean... you, you gave us Twilight back." His shattered expression held, as Spike placed both claws upon his chest. "You gave _me_ , Twilight back. And for that," his emerald eyes glistened orange, " _I can't, even begin, t' thank you_!"

Her heart melted to the dragon's deep, childish sobs. "Oh, Spike," she reached over, "you don't have to say any-"

He squirmed away from her, his eyes alight with sudden terror. "No! Starlight, wait - let me finish!" He gasped, swallowing hard and rubbing his eyes while Starlight retracted into herself, feeling like she just touched a stove.

 _What... did I do wrong?_ More and more, she felt like she had - what did Twilight have to do with this?

"Because," Spike continued, his voice still scratchy, thick with emotion, but no longer broken and wavering, "Because of that, I have no idea, how to feel about _this_!" He gestured both claws to her maiming. "I mean, y-you just _gave up_ ," he gagged on the phrase, "something that was so important to you, for Twilight! I mean, this is just-! Don't you know how _conflicted_ I feel about that!?"

This wasn't at all the route Starlight expected, but then again, that was a good summation of the last couple days. "Luckily Spike, you don't have to worry about-"

" _About you_ , yes, I heard ya the _first_ twenty times." He frowned at the defensive-aggressive stance Starlight lurched into hearing the venom in his tone.

Spike's voice regressed to a soft, throat-gravelly plea. "Starlight, look, I'm not attacking your choice or saying you should have done it differently. But... just because you're okay with it, doesn't mean that I am! And now that Twilight's realized this, she's gonna feel even worse than I am!"

As Spike spoke, Starlight's memory was a hurricane of the last fifteen minutes, lingering upon moments where she completely misunderstood what Twilight was reacting to, or what she was feeling. Her heart beat once, and it ached. "But... Twilight, she..." some semblance of a defense formed, as did strength of her conviction, "she didn't even _say anything_ , like you are! How'm I supposed to know you aren't just misunderstanding her?"

She was offered only a half-lidded stare. "Starlight, I've known Twilight my entire life. I can tell when she's in panic-mode, just like I can tell when she isn't thinking straight! She may _seem_ fine now, and Twilight may feel okay herself, but right now she's just latching onto whatever you say in order to believe that everything's okay! This just won't _last long_! Not before reality slaps her in the face, and _Twilight_ , well..." He gazed off, anxiously.

He seemed to be implying that Starlight, as a result of her actions, _hurt_ Twilight too!

She furrowed her brow, these concerns weighing upon her, but not completely, as if a "point" or a punchline still hadn't come. "And what 'reality' is this?"

Spike looked at her as if she just grew another horn. "Starlight... you've lost your magic. You're not _actually okay_ with this, are you? I mean, you sounded just like Pinkie Pie that time we confronted her about her cake addiction, remember?" He proceeded to squeal in a high, mocking tone, "'Nu-uh, I'm fine, you guys are being silly, I don't have a problem!'" Spike's eyes were pitying, further fueling a growing fire in Starlight's belly. "Don't you remember how sad that was?"

She merely snorted, "Of course I do," walking past him towards the door, "but this is completely different! It was to save Twilight!"

"Yes, but-!" As far as Starlight was concerned, this conversation was over. Realizing she was gone, Spike jogged, following her into the hall. "But Starlight!" he panted beside her. "You love magic! It's your whole world! You're really ready to just _say goodbye_ to all that!?"

She halted in place, and he skidded to a stop before her as she groaned, "Ugh, _yes,_ I'm ready! Is _everypony_ gonna be worried about me until I assure them that _I really am_ after half a dozen times?"

She didn't give Spike a chance to reply; Starlight took off at a gallop towards... somewhere.


End file.
